Welcome to the PokéCommunity!

Hi there! Thanks for visiting PokéCommunity. We’re a group of Pokémon fans dedicated to providing the best place on the Internet for discussing ideas and sharing fan-made content. Welcome! We’re glad you’re here.

In order to join our community we need you to create an account with us. Doing so will allow you to make posts, submit and view fan art and fan fiction, download fan-made games, and much more. It’s quick and easy; just click here and follow the instructions.

PGM is all set for February. This month, we're playing through a game known as Eevee's Tile Trial. If you wish to earn rewards, please head over to our event thread by clicking on the provided link and give yourself a shot at the game!

Hey Unregistered! How fast can you game? The Marathon II is up and running in Video Game's - compete against your friends to see how quickly you can complete sixty intense in-game challenges. See you there!

Republic City. A bustling, evolving metropolis in an otherwise peaceful land. The paved streets run crisscross through the city, filled with the noise of people talking, scurrying from place to place, the whirr and hum of sato-mobiles and mopeds darting up and down the busy streets. It’s a generally busy city, surrounded by both mountains, plains and ocean.

"Tonight only, at the Pro Bending Arena!

The prodigy team of the Pro Bending Circuit, The Force of Nature, who’s made their way to the top in record time, go up against the ferocious Beetlefrogs! Will the Beetlefrogs’ several years of experience match up against the youth and willpower of The Force of Nature? Or will they succumb to the ONLY Pro Bending team in history to have an Air Bender with them?

There’s only one place to find out! In the Pro Bending arena, tonight, at eight o’clock!”

Along with some basic information like the location of the arena, ticket prices and an image of the two teams facing one another over a drawing of the arena, this poster hangs on the walls and along the lamp posts everywhere within Republic City. You might have read the poster or the newspaper, heard about the match in the radio, or heard people in the street talking about it, but hearing people talk about it, and if you’ve seen a match with The Force of Nature in it, it’s clear that tonight is going to be one hell of a show. And for one reason or another, you decide to go and watch the match. There definitely is something familiar about the Airbender shown on the poster…

What to do:

The main exercise of this first stage is to make your way to the stadium. Your 'end goal', the furthest we would like you to go, will be taking your place in the audience.

You may visit shops and go about your business on your way to the stadium, but you must go there. Your character may already be intent on watching the game, they may get dragged in to it, or they may recognise Kalden and go out of curiousity. It is up to you.

You may bump in to other characters in this part of the roleplay, but it is not forced. You may choose to roleplay your own NPCs (family, friends of your characters) instead.

It is currently 5 o' clock in the afternoon, leaving you with three hours to spend before the match starts. (Sounds like alot, but if everybody's there earlier than expected, we'll obviously skip straight to the fight)

Xiu was probably the only Avatar to have a private study as large as hers, or at least she was the only one she knew of. While more recent Avatars have had their life stories thoroughly chronicled with some of them even having been turned into stage productions (A certain one originally by the Ember Island Players comes to mind. In that situation, the book was definitely better), the earlier ones remain clouded in mystery for the most part so she doesn’t really have any way of knowing if she really does have the largest private study. Maybe once she is finally able to communicate with her past lives she can interview them and write a book about it. The Avatar state seemed like an incredible resource and she was surprised nobody has tried to use it in such a way before.

At present, Avatar Xiu was sitting in the aforementioned study staring at a lit candle and practicing breathing exercises. Having a candle lit in the middle of a room that had piles and stacks and shelves of books everywhere was probably not a smart idea, but for now she needed it. The room was entirely silent except for Xiu’s breathing. ”Firebending comes from the breath!” she remembered her teacher saying. Her teacher had told her that her forms were flawless, so clearly it must be the breath that is causing it. However, practice as she may, she couldn’t seem to figure out how her breathing could be off. Xiu continued to practice for a few more minutes before she stood up and assumed a firebending stance facing the candle and took another deep breath. A brief standoff between the two ensued before she stepped forward and punched in the little flame’s direction.

The flame flickered slightly.

Xiu sighed. With these results it was difficult to tell if she had actually firebent the flame or just blown on it very gently with airbending. I need a change of perspective, she said. It wouldn’t do any good to keep repeating what she had been doing blindly because she would only see the same things she already had. What would be the best way to do this, though? Xiu put on a green-and-gold dress, grabbed her purse, and left her house-sized study put together on her request by earthbender sentries next to the compound before going to notify the sentries standing outside the entrance. “Hey guys!” she said in her cheerful voice, smiling wide. “I’m gonna go for a little walk in the city, okay?”

“You sure you don’t want us to come with you, Xiu?” The sentry who spoke was always the most vocal with his concern.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Go have some fun yourself, Tsuno!” She had made an effort to learn all the names of the inhabitants of the compound. It wasn’t too difficult after finding the personnel list, but she went around and asked them all anyway because it made a better impression.

“Alright, be careful.” He waved goodbye and Xiu waved back as she left. She walked along the street that lead to the city in such a way that made it clear to all who saw her that she was a very happy young girl without making it clear that she was trying to project that image by doing something like skipping or singing. The thought reminded her that she should probably further her music studies, though. Some people would be surprised that the sentries would let her go alone so easily after the sort of trouble that Korra got herself into frequently, but the fact was that they didn’t. There was one single airbender amongst the sentries and he was known among them for his agility, but most importantly, he made a skilled spy. The sentries always sent him to watch over her and thought that she hadn’t noticed. She was more aware than they gave her credit for. She always paid attention to the goings on of the compound and made sure to observe her surroundings when she left her study as well. He never showed himself, though, but that was probably because Xiu never got into any trouble.

The journey between the compound and the city was miniscule so it didn’t take long before she was strolling around Republic City. It was loud and bustling like always with Sato-mobiles filling the streets, zipping by. Xiu honestly preferred the quiet of her study, but this change in scenery was exactly what she had asked for. Posters were scattered all throughout the city advertising all sorts of things like cheap bending masters and store sales but Xiu only cared about one type of poster. She walked up to a lamp post that had a pro-bending advertisement on it. Her intention was to see a pro-bending match to observe their technique up close. Pro firebenders had a much different style than traditional ones, so perhaps that could help her find a way to improve her own technique. Something in the poster in front of her caught her eye though. While she was surprised that she was lucky enough to be in the city the exact day of the match in question, what drew her attention was the face of Force of Nature’s airbender. Kalden, eh?

Xiu chuckled at the chances of this happening; the match she was lucky enough to catch being the one involving a boy from that ridiculous training camp. It seemed like fate enjoyed messing with her, just as it had by making the girl who begged to not be the Avatar exactly that. Looking at his face, she could tell that he was a very different boy than when he was little. Well, he probably wasn’t an entirely new person. Despite the most dynamic changes in a personality, that person typically held the same basic foundation all throughout their lives. Except for insane people, that is, what with mental instability causing unpredictability. She didn’t have first hand experience with insane people, but she had read it in a few medical journals she had at her study. Regardless, she doubted Kalden was insane considering the fact that he was apparently on a successful pro-bending team. Actually, now that she thought about it, she had noticed a difference in him before from her time at the air temple. When she finally left, she remembered that he would smile and talk more than he did during camp. That meant it was just a normal progression of identity, nothing special.

Noting that the match started at 8:00, Xiu looked at the sun and figured there were probably three hours left until it began so she decided to get something to eat first. She didn’t have much money, though (because the Avatar doesn’t exactly have a secret bank account overflowing with gold) so she followed the map of the city she had plotted out in her head until she reached a stand that sold Fire Nation snack foods and bought a bag of fire flakes. Sure it was very spicy, but maybe her inability to firebend came from her lack of understanding of Fire Nation culture. Sure she knew about it, but did she really understand? By now she was near the Central City Station so she decided to just sit down on a bench eating fire flakes while looking at the statue of the revolutionary former Fire Lord Zuko and thinking about pro firebenders. While most of this was superficial and probably of little effect on her bending ability, she secretly hoped it was making her more “fiery” and in turn helping her become a better firebender.

It was Mr. Wu's favorite past-time: eating dumplings. Not even the little, itty-bitty tiny ones with almost no flavor. Oh no, Mr. Wu went for the ultimate prize: the unnecessarily large and delicious dumplings made by the salesman outside of his apartment building. They were soft, and doughy, and filled with some delicious melted cheese. Each one was big enough to feed a family of four... well, not really. But they were large, and Mr. Wu would enjoy every single moment as he delved into this delicious meal. He slowly began to take a bite -

Whap!

The dumpling flew from Mr. Wu's hand before he could begin to indulge himself as a playing card, a six of spades, struck it in the side and sent it plummeting towards the ground. Before he could reach out to try and save his doom-destined snack, a streak of highlighted hair darted by, snatching the dumpling from mid-air. When the thief turned it was none other than the notorious -

"Angelique Everret!"

"Hi Mr. Wu!" Angelique chimed, tossing the dumpling up and down in her hand. "It's great to see you again. I see your bald spot got bigger since last month. Did you ever think about getting that looked at?"

"You give me that dumpling back right now!" Mr. Wu demanded, his hand clenched into a fist. "You know how mad I get when you steal my food!"

"Yeah, I know." She laughed, wrapping the dumpling in some food-wrapping paper before depositing it in her bag. From the same bag, she produced a gold coin, which she threw to Mr. Wu. He caught it in his hand, contemplating whether or not he should accept it or use a cannon to shoot it back at her head. "That's the fun part about it, duh. It's not like I steal, I just take and pay. Isn't that how economy works?"

"Are you really gonna let her get away with this?" Mr. Wu shouted to the shopkeeper, who merely shrugged. After all, she did give him money for it. "Ooh, watch your step Angelique. I'll get you one of these days."

"I anticipate it." She laughed before turning heel and taking off down the street. "Get a hat, baldie!"

Angelique was on top of the world - what a great day! She had food, she had a pro-bending match to watch later tonight with Julienne, and she was meeting up with her in a few minutes so they could kill three hours before they actually had to go. Nothing could make this better - except, of course, Angelique's usual game of, "Let's Do Gymnastics in Republic City's Streets."

A slide here, and a jump there, and a cartwheel between two people who protested loudly as she rolled away; Angelique was nimble and pliable, like a cat. She weaved between people, she ducked, she jumped, she did whatever she could to get past everyone without making contact. Everyone complained as she did some sort of trick to get around them, shouting that she was extremely annoying and in their way, but she didn't mind. She was used to it. She'd done this so many times before that it was almost a second nature.

Eventually, her acrobatics brought her to the front of the Meisō Place restaurant, Julienne's favorite place to eat. Angelique didn't care too much for it, honestly, which is why she took Mr. Wu's dumpling along with her. She walked inside, being careful to not let her combat boots disturb the peaceful quietness that resonated around the restaurant. Meisō Place was made for those who needed a relaxing environment to think while also getting something nutritious to munch on while they did. Meisō was Japanese (she thinks) for meditation. She had come in before and had gotten in trouble because she was too loud, so in here she learned to keep it down a notch.

She slid into the booth she found Julienne sitting at. "Hey girl, sorry I'm late. Seems like today everyone's really busy, so getting through the mass was a bit tougher than usual." She whispered.

Julienne nodded, her face full of noodles. Julienne was almost an opposite of Angelique, excluding her figure - brown hair, blue eyes, wore colorful clothes, could hardly bend her knee without pulling something; but yet, they both made their odd friendship work somehow. Guess you could say that opposites do truly attract. Julienne downed the noodles she was inhaling into her mouth and replied, "Yeah, I hear ya. Everyone's probably excited about the finals tonight. I heard there's gonna be a humongous crowd there, and all the seats sold out yesterday."

"No joke. If my mom didn't work at that place, we'd have to hang from the rafters." She silently chuckled. "They're front row, too! We'll get to see everything close up. How awesome is that?"

"Pretty awesome, not gonna lie." Julienne rested her arms on the table. "Wish we could've gotten our hands on some of those VIP passes so we could meet the teams and stuff. I know you really wanna talk to the Firebender on the Force of Nature team about how he got into pro-bending."

"Yeah." Angelique sighed. "I wish they would just let me sign up. Just because my firebending isn't the best isn't any reason to not let me in. I'm still good!"

"Well, it probably didn't help that you tried to explain to them how your cards worked and how you planned to use them in the matches." Julienne argued, pushing her bangs behind her ear. "No one else in that stuff uses weapons, you know. Even if your's... well, suck."

"Hey!" Angelique exclaimed softly. "My cards do not suck. They're very good weapons. You only think they suck because you don't know how to use them. Look." She pulled the dumpling out of her bag, unwrapping it and showing it to Julienne. "They got me this little puppy today. These things are the best, lemme tell you."

"Yeah yeah, I know what they are." Julienne rolled her eyes. "You always bring them whenever I want to eat here. Why don't you just try the food here? You'd like it."

"I have tried the food here, and it made me obnoxiously sick. No discredit to the chefs, but I can't stand the taste of anything they have here except for their tea." Angelique grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the table and jabbed them directly into the dumpling - she still had no clue how to use them. She pulled them out, bringing along some cheesy-doughy deliciousness. She popped it into her mouth, enjoying the pleasurable taste.

"You're so close-minded sometimes." Julienne quirked before sipping from her water. "Anyway, we've got a lot of time to kill before the match actually starts. What are we gonna do to pass through these next three hours? I wouldn't want to sit here and just talk the whole time."

"Well, there's a lot to do in Republic City. If you were able to do a stretch without causing collateral damage to yourself we could probably do some yoga. How about... we go people watching near Central Station? We always see some really interesting people when we're there."

Julienne tossed the thought back and forth for a few minutes. "That sounds good, I guess. There's a lot of people coming in from out-of-town to see the finals. It'll be good to spot some new faces. Let's get to it then."

After a few more bites of her dumpling, Angelique wrapped it back up and put it back in her bag before the two set off down the block towards Central Station, which was bustling with people flowing in from every direction, all going about their own business.

The iconic Central Station is a must-visit spot for anyone new to Republic City. Whether you stay for a day or stay for a month, a stop at this place is a must. From the awe-inspiring statue of Fire Lord Zuko to the creative and quirky layout of the whole place, you'll find yourself a new person once you leave.

... Pfft. Yeah right.

Angelique stretched her arms high as she and Julienne stood near the entrance, the crowd of people flowing around them like an active river. "Man, I love this place. It's just so invigorating. Where should we sit?"

Julienne looked around, eventually spotting a lone bench close to the entrance and to where they were standing. "Over there looks good. We can catch everyone coming in and should be able to see everyone going out." Angelique nodded in agreement as the two strided their way towards the bench, bumping around people that moved perpendicular to them before sitting down and trying to get comfortable. Julienne looked over for a second at the person on the bench next to them before turning back to Angelique and whispering, "Oh, my, god. Just look at the gorgeous dress that girl is wearing. I want it."

Angelique leaned forward, looking past her friend to spot the girl who wore the dress she desired. Although the dress was indeed very flashy and pretty, Angelique didn't care too much for it. It was long, and very bright - the exact opposite of what Angelique wants in a dress. "Eh, it's alright. Way too colorful though."

Julienne scoffed at her critique. "Too colorful? That's the point of dresses. You're the only person in the world who doesn't like color. You act like it'll burn your skin if you wear it." She looked back at the girl in the dress for a moment before looking back to Angelique. "I should go ask her where she bought that dress, so I can get it too. It's so beautiful. I need it."

Angelique grabbed Julienne's arm as she tried to stand up, pulling her back down to the bench. "No. You know that's against the rules of people watching. Never talk to the people you see. That's just weird, okay? Besides, a dress like that looks entirely too expensive to be store-bought. It's absolutely custom made, no doubt in my mind about it. We don't need to bother her."

"Angelique, you're not my mother." Julienne yanked her arm back. "You might not know this, but girls love getting compliments on their clothes. It's just a female thing, which I'm shocked you don't know about. Quit being such a tomboy and let me ask her where she got her dress."

Angelique smacked herself on her forehead. "Julienne, you don't even know her. And what if she thinks you're weird for asking that? Besides, why are you trying to rip off other people's styles? You should be like me. Do you see anyone else wearing my outfit, anywhere?"

"No, because it's a weird outfit that most people have enough common sense to not wear." Julienne countered.

"Alright, listen here-" "No, you listen! I-" "- any idea how hard it is to work this look -" "- acting like any social interaction will nullify your existence -" "- what people think and I know that you shouldn't talk to her -" "- there's nothing wrong with asking for fashion advice -" "- it's not normal and most people are creeped out by it -" "- not like I'm some freaky guy flirting! -" "- safer not to talk to people you don't know! What if she's a serial killer in disguise? -" "- how many times has that actually happened? Crime rates are much lower than they were last year -" "- you already have, like, fifty dresses anyway! You probably have that one sitting in the back of your closet -" "- said it was custom made! -"

And so, arguing ensued. Angelique and Julienne began to bicker and squabble right in the middle of Central Station. They were very vocal and loud, so it drew the attention of some passerby. They continued to argue for quite a while over... something unspecified.

__________________

at some point I must have liked that you look like a taco addict who's had one too many back alley liposuctions

Davian Krotesse

"Why?" A young silver-eyed Metal Bender mumbled to himself as he wandered aimlessly through republic city. Why did I come back? There's nothing for me here anymore...I mean my parents deserved to know I was all right but why am I STILL here? This and more the foolhardy boy pondered bitterly during his sojourn to wherever. After a good, smash your head into the wall frustrating bit later he decided since no great epiphany on where his life should move next was forthcoming he may as well find a way to pass the time until he DID know what he wanted. The wonderfully prophetic answer came in the form of: a promotional poster, for pro-bending, not just because bending was practically the only thing that entertained him anymore but also because he recognized one of the boys in the poster. So he's still around? Well practically everyone from that camp ended up a prodigy of some sort...accept for me running off like some wannabe thug. My money's on him...and I've got nothing better to do.

With a definite goal in mind and something to look forward to that might actually be fun Davian was filled with a sense of purpose and began to march toward the arena determinedly! That is, for the 30 seconds it took him to remember the match would be later that evening, not just immediately after he so happened to look at the poster, which once again left him with nothing to do. The mentally hyperactive and outwardly lazy reprobate once again meandered mindlessly through the city hoping for something to occupy his time, ignoring the honking of impatient Sato-mobile drivers when he got in their way and moved all too slow. Of course, as important characters in stories are prone to, when he found what he wanted it still wasn't really what he wanted. Davian's determined legs had brought him straight to a restaurant in spite of his unfocused mind.

He entered the heavenly eatery and his stomach quickly made it clear exactly why he ended up there, he needed...some food...to...
~
"GET IN MAH BELLY!" Davian said to the bagel slathered in delicious, wonderful, perfectly spread cream cheese just before ripping a large chunk of it away with his teeth. He looked so happy and serene while he chewed that nobody who had met him since he returned would believe it was really him. He stood up and placed a gold coin on the dining table next to the many plates that had once ferried bagels to their untimely demise. He was confident the coin would be plenty, it was pure 24 karat gold that had been mined, refined, and minted at a place known only to a few outside of its residents as the Veleri settlement. The coins were quickly gaining popularity but were hard to come by for the most part, if there was one thing Davian was confident he knew well, it was currency, the Veleri coin should be more than enough. On that thought he stopped by the back of the restaurant where the owner was to ask him a favor. "I'm sorry I don't have anything smaller than what I paid with, but please take the extra out of the cash profit and share it with your baker, chef, whatever and the nice woman who served me, the food and service were both excellent, I didn't know there were any places in Republic City that served bagels, it's been far too long since i had any." He gave the man know chance to ask what he had paid with before making his way back outside.

Davian still had no idea what to do with the rest of his time but he was in a pretty good mood and was much more optimistic about his search for entertainment, so much so he actually payed attention to where he was going! (Thank goodness, those poor drivers are safe again) He ended up making his way to the City's Central Station, he always loved to look at Zuko's statue, he had a lot of respect for a man who against all those odds could not only redeem himself, but help save the world and redeem his entire country! He also found it a great place to watch the sunset. He plopped down on a bench, completely oblivious to the fact that it was already occupied and he had sat next to someone without so much as a word and leaned back to look at the sky for a bit. But of course, what with plots and whatnot Davian hadn't sat down for very long before he heard a commotion. Two rather pretty (In their own ways) girls were arguing vehemently in complete ignorance (or Apathy) of all the passers-by turned onlooker that were watching them avidly. Their arguing was passionate and sounded genuinely angry, but just WHAT they were arguing about made it clear they cared about each other to a point at least.

He leaned back once again for another peak at the sky and sighed before thinking out loud more loudly than one would expect. "Friends fighting is all well and good, but if they keep that up they'll miss the sunset, and that would be just a shame."

The crew of sailors that were gathered around the two men quietened down. Pinned to the ship's mast and deck were 10 targets, each the size of an average football. The point of the challenge was to hit all 10 targets in record time, and whoever would get the fastest time would win the bet. Sounds easy, right? That was what Ryan thought before realizing he had challenged an earth bender.

The large, bulky man had already smashed all the targets in less than 6 seconds, and the young waterbender thought of how he could save his money .

Well, damn. Should've lowered that bet a little, I won't have enough money to pay for anything else later. Can't talk my way out of it, too...

He knew the only way to actually win this - oh, who was he kidding, it was a stupid idea anyway - was to be in two places at once. And he couldn't -

"Unless..." he muttered under his breath, smiling. He looked at the man with the timer, and gestured at him to start it. "Three... Two... One... start!"

In a flash, four blobs of water lunged out of the ocean, darting towards the targets and barely avoiding the other crewmen. Ryan quickly unscrewed the cap off the bottle on his waist, and pointed at two other targets, mimicking a gun-point with his hand.

"BOOM SHAKALAKALAKA!" he yelled, and brought on cheers from the other crewmen. Immediately two "bullets" of water shot straight out of the bottle, touched his fingers and shot at the two targets, which were nailed to the floor. Then, he raised his fist and punched towards three other targets which were nailed to the front of the ship. Quickly a wave rose from the water, smashing them into pieces. Everyone watched in anticipation as the last target, which was the highest up the mast, remained.

Bringing two fingers to his mouth, Ryan let out a high-pitched whistle. Instants later a small, grey, torpedo-like figure dashed out of the water, hitting the last target, breaking it in half. Ryan sighed in relief.

The crowd of sailors cheered, and laughed at the angry Earthbender who had lost the bet. One of them walked up to Ryan and put a hand on his shoulder. "Good going, lad! Five seconds and a half, pretty impressive!"

"Thanks, mate. But sill, I wouldn't have done it without - hey!" He looked up at the grey figure that had smashed the last target. "You can get down there now, you know!" Ryan laughed as he noticed Falco was apparently stuck to the wood.

"One of ye monkeys get the bird down!" the sailor told the others.

Ryan looked out at sea, squinting. He could just barely notice the mountains and skyscrapers of Republic City. "We're almost there, sweet."

Half an hour later, the ship had reached the docks. As Ryan's father, who was the captain of the three ships, filled in all necessary paperwork (it was necessary nowadays due to the large amount of illegal trade happening), Ryan strolled around the deck, hands in his pocket, with his Water Falcon resting on his shoulder; quietly eyeing the local folk (mostly the ladies).

A few moments later, his father appeared, and gestured towards the crewmen. "Load off the goods, boys!"

He looked at his son, who was still walking around aimlessly. He walked up to him. "We'll be here for some time, you know. It'll probably be a few months till the next load of goods comes to town, so make yourself useful, lad, and help those men with the cargo. Then you're free to go wherever you want. You know where your uncle's appartment is, right?"

"Yeah, come on, I've been there millions of times!"

Ryan was used to his father giving him so much freedom. It wasn't his first time going to Republic City, as he had gone on many occasions - sometimes even alone.

"Well then, take care of yourself, lad. Oh, and..." he came up close and muttered to him. "Don't get in trouble with any girls."

After helping the crew unload the cargo, and waving good-bye to his father, Ryan whistled to call back Falco (who had for some reason wandered off to the depth of the ocean again) and made his way towards the large, bustling city.

Why is Fire Lord Zuko wearing his royal armor instead of his royal robes for this statue?

This was one of the various questions that came to mind as Xiu stared at the statue of the former Fire Lord. Putting the bag of fire flakes to the side, she reached into her purse and pulled out a small notepad which she had just about filled with questions to ask the Avatars when she was finally able to contact them. Of course, she doubted Avatar Aang would know the answer to this question, but it didn’t hurt to ask. This was the case for many of her questions in the notepad as well as on the other notepads she had already exhausted the space in. Once she had finished writing, Xiu put the notepad away and returned to her fire flakes.

At this point she could barely feel her tongue anymore due to the spiciness of the snack and her face was even starting to turn red, but she continued eating them anyway (although she took a break whenever she felt her face reddening to return it to its light color). She came up with several reasons for doing this, the most important of them being that she was hungry and poor right now, but others included the fact that she was getting desperate about her firebending inability and was at this point doing whatever she could that might help her, and the idea that they had to be an acquired taste or something considering the fact that there were people eating this by the bowlful. It would be to her benefit to find something she could eat cheaply, regularly, and enjoyably whenever she was in the city.

Xiu continued this pattern of eat, rest, eat, rest, until she noticed a pair of girls coming near her. Once a person got within a certain distance from her, Xiu went on high alert. Of course, she didn’t show it in the slightest because that would alert the other person and defeat the purpose. This wasn’t out of any sort of paranoia, though. She had the airbender sentry watching over her in case any strangers tried something dangerous. She just plain didn’t want to miss her chance to learn about them, that’s all. You can’t properly observe someone from too far away. Immediately she focused her hearing on the girls’ words while continuing to watch the statue and to eat the flakes, albeit at a slower pace. Interestingly enough, their primary topic of conversation seemed to be her, or rather her dress. Or rather, her on one end of the conversation, her dress on the other. Eventually they revealed their names, Angelique and Julienne. She started forming ideas in her head about what sort of people they were.

It didn’t take long for their conversation to escalate into an argument. It was nothing serious, just a small disagreement between friends, but they went about it loudly enough that it would easily draw attention. That meant it would no longer be suspicious for her to look in their direction. Xiu turned her head, widening her eyes in false surprise at the scene before her. She didn’t say anything yet, though, instead taking the time she had before her watching became weird to get a good look at them. Angelique was dressed in all black with black highlights, this most likely being her “weird outfit that most people have enough common sense not to wear”. It was indeed different from the norm, and Xiu was slowly starting to piece together the type of person this Angelique was.

Eccentric. That was the most prominent word that came to mind. She made an effort to be different from the people around her through clothing and habits and she embraced this. She probably liked to believe that she didn’t care what others thought, but her argument with Julienne proved that that’s a lie. While all people naturally and subconsciously create different personas for interacting with different people, Angelique’s mask is deliberate. There is probably a deep-seated fear of losing her assumedly few friends behind a confident exterior that she doesn’t want to show them, not to its full extent at least. Blonde hair and green eyes indicate a mixed heritage and while not too muscular, her build still has defined athletic characteristics. Either an acrobat or a swift martial artist. Maybe even a pro-bender, although she wasn’t familiar enough with the sport to confirm or deny that.

Julienne, on the other hand, was much more ordinary. She probably enjoyed shopping, hanging out with her friends, or a variety of other typical girl activities. There honestly wasn’t much in this girl that Xiu hadn’t seen before, but that was exactly what made her interesting. She wanted to find out just how these opposites became friends.

Of course, she could also be completely wrong about all of that, but that was the beauty of conjecture!

Just as Xiu was turning away, her “time before the watching drew any attention from those being watched” probably running out, she noticed another person enter her “observatory radius”. This time it was a tall, muscular boy with a posture that expressed laziness who just sat right next to her without so much as a word. Scattered metal and armor pieces on his outfit as well as obviously weighted bags on his belt with a metal-tipped drawstring were all things that screamed “metalbender”. The scars covering his face as well as the physique implied involvement dangerous activities that required strength, such as smithing, construction, or brawling, but the armor made the latter the more likely option. However, his expression at seeing the arguing girls and his words expressing a desire to see the sunset supported the idea that he wasn’t a thug or criminal, simply a brawler. Or maybe he was the sort of guy who just made a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She wasn’t quite sure whether or not he frequently talked to himself or he did that on purpose to draw the attention of the trio of girls around him, though.

Xiu figured that she had guessed all she could for now and decided to intervene so that the could maintain a positive impression with Angelique and Julienne in case they met in the future. Gently putting down her bag of fire flakes, she stood up and walked over to the arguing girls. “Excuse me,” she said, raising her voice enough to be heard over their argument. To cancel out any negative implication that she was asserting any authority over them, she bowed. Before she lifted her head, she said, “I couldn’t help but overhear your argument. I’m sorry for causing you both so much trouble.” She then rose and turned to Julienne. “I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to buy this dress.” She gave a soft smile as she continued. “I made this one myself. Sewing is one of my hobbies. If you want, I can make you one, though. I would love to try making clothes for someone else!” Slowly, she was perking up as she spoke so that when she turned to address Angelique she was smiling widely. “I love your outfit, though, especially the highlights! It’s all very different from what you usually see and I think it’s a great expression of yourself! I-” She stopped abruptly. “Oh, where are my manners! I’m Ling Xiao, nice to meet you both. I’m probably bothering you two, so I’ll go back over there. It was nice talking to you both, though.” After one final bow, Xiu walked back over to her spot next to metalbender guy and sat down, picking up her little bag of fire flakes and commenting to the girls, “They’re a guilty pleasure,” before she turned away and continued eating.

There was no actual meaning in the fake name Xiu wore around the city. Its only purpose was to keep those who knew that Xiu Lim was the Avatar from knowing that she was the Avatar. Things were nice and peaceful, and she preferred to keep them that way. If the city knew it was her, then the press would hound her at every moment, not to mention the sort of fallout she’d have to deal with involving the kids from the training camp, as there were undoubtedly some of them living in the city. For all she knew, all three of the teens here were from the training camp, but since she didn’t pay too much attention as a five year old (since she was too busy crying about how much she hated it there) she wouldn’t be able to recognize them now. She could only recognize Kalden because she had seen him around at the air temple.

Regardless, now Xiu had made an impression on the girls. Whether it was a good one or a bad one remained to be seen, but no matter what it would help teach her more about them. She didn’t need the information for anything actually, she just liked learning. There was still the issue of the boy she was sitting next to, but he had probably seen it all happen so she had probably made an impression on him too. So now all that remained was seeing how it all unfolded.

Kalden | Republic City dock area

“Get back here, you cretin!”

“Sorry, no time! Just send me the bill!” Kalden shouted over his shoulder at the fire nation snacks-vendor, who was currently shouting bloody murder because of the couple of bags of fireflakes and a few skewered, spicy meat-sticks that had been toppled over as Kalden lept over the small stall. He didn’t have time to stop and apologize, nor did he have the money on him to pay for that much food at once.

He continued speeding down the street, the people he passed sending him weird stares after having stumbled out of the way, out of fear of being hit by this oddly-dressed boy darting down the pavement.
“Come on, I don’t wanna be late…! I need to take a shortcut!” he muttered to himself as he noticed an alleyway off to the left slightly ahead of him. He lept into the air and, without stopping to turn, he kicked his leg out to the right, sending a blast of air off to the side, which sent him down the alleyway. In the air, he turned around to face down the narrow alley and landed on his feet again, continuing his momentum as he dashed past garbage pails, drainpipes and the like.

It was a good thing he spent a lot of his free time exploring the city. It had given him a really good idea of the shortcuts, narrow passages and secrets the city held, majorly in the southern part of the city, around the docks, though he had found himself wandering off to the other parts of the city as well. The alley ended back out into the streets, but without stopping, he dashed across the walkway and into the street itself, using a gust of air to help him leap up and push a foot onto the roof of a moving satomobile, the cars in the street all starting to honk at him. Without spending even a moment on the car, he lept off again, doing this two more times to cross the road, and continue down the slightly wider alleyway there.

He grinned to himself, quite enjoying the looks on the peoples’ faces as he had jumped over the traffic, thought the pressure of being late made him continue to speed down the alley, passing a beggar on the way, who was probably the least surprised person he had passed this evening. He noticed two kids kicking a ball back and forth, and as they turned to look at the boy rushing towards them, he decided to give them a little show. He jumped into the air again, landing with both his feet planted on the ball that had come to a stop between them as they gaped up at this strange boy.

Kalden then spread his arms out to the sides, twisting his torso before spinning himself around, causing him and the ball to lift into the air, a visible current moving around the ball, before he lept off and continued down the alley, the kids laughing and clapping behind him as the ball slowly hovered down towards the ground while spinning around itself. Hearing the laughter and clapping made him smile and almost miss the fact that he erupted into what looked like a small parking lot for satomobiles behind a restaurant.

“… Oh! Perfect! I might just make it!” He made a turn and ran into the parking lot, hidden away between the two, tall buildings on either side, running right up to the back entrance of the restaurant he worked at and proceeded to leap onto a garbage pail, then the roof of a car, and then launched himself with the help of his bending, onto a balcony slightly higher up. He took a deep breath, bending his knees before taking another leap, and then another, finally landing on the top of the four-story building, taking deep breaths as he walked over to the western edge of the building.

Standing there on the rooftop, there was a small tent-like structure erected, though it was more of a small pavilion, with a roof and only two ‘walls’. One opening was towards the middle of the roof and the other faced out across the docks and the sea. Within this little tent was a small, comfortable chair, a little table, and a basket containing two packages.

Kalden took a deep breath and stepped over, slumping into the chair, raising his feet and resting them on the edge of the building, moving his arms behind his head with a content smile as he looked out across the docks, where people and satomobiles were skittering around, to the rippling ocean, with the statue of Avatar Aang standing proudly, and Airtemple Island slightly off to the side. His gaze then fell onto the sun, which was slowly descending towards the horizon, painting the sky in a soft, orangey-pink glow, and was starting to gently touch the border of the sea.

Angelique and Julienne, who were locked into their argument until a stranger vocally expressed her presence, looked up at the girl who was technically the point of their disagreements as she had spoken to them. "I couldn’t help but overhear your argument. I’m sorry for causing you both so much trouble." She then bowed, to which Angelique did the standard fist-in-palm bow in return. Julienne had no clue what that was, so she just looked at both of them in confusion.

"Yeah, sorry about, well, that one." Angelique motioned to Julienne, who glared back. "She thought your dress was really pretty and wanted to ask you where you got it, but I didn't want her to disturb you. You seemed like you were in some kind of intense thought process or something."

"Anyway!" Julienne interjected, pushing Angelique over so she could be face-to-face with this mystery girl. "Where on earth did you buy that dress? It's just so beautiful, I can't bare not having it."

"I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to buy this dress." Julienne's eager smile dropped as the stranger dropped the bad news. "I made this one myself. Sewing is one of my hobbies. If you want, I can make you one, though. I would love to try making clothes for someone else!"

"Oh my gosh, you made that?" Julienne stood up, hastily inspecting the girl's dress from various angles. "Girl, you have got some serious talent. You gotta show me how to do that. If you honestly would like to make one for me, I'd love one exactly like this. It's so beautiful and oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my g -"

"Julienne!" Angelique snatched Julienne away from her inspection, sitting her back on the bench, before turning to the stranger. "I'm sorry, she's just so... hyper sometimes. But your dress is very pretty. It's neat how you made that yourself."

"Thank you." The stranger replied. "I love your outfit, though, especially the highlights! It’s all very different from what you usually see and I think it’s a great expression of yourself!"

"Oh, you do?" Angelique was somewhat flattered. This girl was pretty nice. Most people gave her weird looks for her outfit, which flew in the face of common Republic City fashion, and yet here this girl was, complimenting her. She even liked her highlights! "Well, thank you. Normally people question my outfit, like Ms. Naysay over there." She replied, referring to Julienne.

The girl then shook her head before she continued to compliment Angelique's fashion sense. "Oh, where are my manners! I’m Ling Xiao, nice to meet you both. I’m probably bothering you two, so I’ll go back over there. It was nice talking to you both, though."

"You were no trouble, Ling." Angelique replied cheerily. "I'm Angelique Everret, and she-who-speaks-ill-of-me over there is Julienne Murphy. It was so nice to meet you too."

Ling nodded respectfully before she went back over to the bench she was sitting on, which now housed a somewhat attractive (in Angelique's opinion) guy on it, who appeared to be a metalbender. Despite that, Angelique turned back to Julienne. "See what you did? We disturbed a very wonderful girl from her day just because you had to be so annoying."

Julienne rolled her eyes. "You act like I cut her arm off. Are you gonna act like this for the rest of the day? Because I might not go with you to the finals if you keep this us."

"Oh shut up, I could push you off the docks and you'd still go with me." Angelique grabbed her bag from the bench and slung it around her shoulders. "Look, obviously we need to cool down. I'm gonna go take a walk. I'd recommend you stay here, before I get angry enough to slap you."

Before Julienne could respond with, "Try me", Angelique was already storming off the way she came in, leaving Julienne alone by herself. She quickly began to make her way back the way she came from.

Oh man, these things are still as good as they were last year. Gotta learn how to cook 'em.

Ryan thought as he walked down the busy main street leading to the Central Station. He had used the money from the bet to buy a dozen fish-stuffed rolls, and had already finished half of them (and without giving any to Falco, that is). The hungry animal glared at its owner, who was holding the small plastic bag filled with the food. In a hungry attempt to snatch one, it dove inside.

"Oi! Ya grey-feathered piece of-"

He shoved his hand inside the bag, grabbing the animal by its head to block its sight. Big mistake. Instinctively the Water Falcon bit his finger, causing Ryan to drop the bag and all the food inside it. Letting go of the Falcon, he quickly bent over to pick them up. The bird flew around for a few seconds, regaining its senses, and dove for the food in Ryan's hand.

"Oh no you don't, boy." he muttered.

He quickly stood up, and threw the food away from the Falcon, in an attempt to keep it away from the rest. It just so happened that it was thrown right in the direction of a rather unhappy Firebender that had been passing by in that moment.

"Ew! What in the world are these things?!"

His plan had worked, since now Falco was eagerly flying around the stranger he hit, ignoring the rest of the food, but - Oh boy.

Bonus points.

He dropped the bag he was holding again, and ran straight towards the girl he had thrown the rolls at. He picked up one that was lying on the ground, and whistled. The Falcon immediately turned its attention to the bigger meal it was being given, and got off from the girl that had been loudly swatting at the pest for a few minutes before he came over.

"Is that your stupid bird?" She griped, ready to get cross with this random freak that had hit her with the terribly-smelling rolls. "Keep that rat with wings on a leash, wouldya!"

Ryan smiled for an instant, then stopped himself from laughing. "Well, Water Falcons are pretty hard to tame, you know. They're quite, er, reckless, if you ask me.

"Well, I didn't ask." She responded rudely, crossing her arms. "If I had caught that thing before you called it off, I probably would've finished it myself. So get that thing under control before someone else does."

"Oh, I don't think anyone else would have the guts to do that. You must be pretty tough to face such a dangerous beast like my Falcon." he glared at the bird that was sitting on a windowsill, who comprehensively gave an angry snarl at the girl.

"Dangerous? That thing? Spare me, he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag." Who was this guy? She hadn't seen a lot of people with birds around Republic City, and those who had them didn't let them roam around free like this guy. He must be new here. "He's skinnier than my arm; I doubt he could do much to anything. Don't you ever feed that thing?"

"Oh believe me, that bird can handle itself. It's a water Falcon, just in case you might not know - even though I find that hard to believe. They can dive incredibly deep under the ocean, resist really strong water pressures, blend it with most terrain -"

"Blah blah blah, shut up." She was getting really sick of listening to this kid babble. "I don't care what your bird can do, honestly. Get it under control. Of the few bird owners in Republic City, you should at least know how to make it listen. It's pretty sad that you can't even do that. Now, goodbye." With that, she attempted to continue in her storming off.

"Whoa, whoa whoa, miss, you can't just leave like this after we've talked for so long!" Ryan said, quickly jumping in front of his departing "mistress", blocking Angelique's way (they had only talked for the past 20 seconds).

Angelique halted herself as Bird Freak jumped in front of her. "Um, we only talked for like 20 seconds, and I yelled at you the entire time. I think that's some good grounds for leaving. Now get out of my way, or I'll remove you out of my way."

Angelique had dealt with idiots like this guy before - the ones who think they can persuade her into some kind of instantaneous relationship just because they had a pretty face. And every time, they left with some kind of injury. She was definitely angry enough to consider hurting this one even more than the last few.

"Okay, okay, look. We've started out on the wrong foot here. Let me introduce myself. I'm Ryan, and this royal beast that cruelly attacked you - and I'm sorry for that - is Falco. May I ask if your name is as charming as your appearance?"

Ew. Why do I always get the freaks? "My names Angelique, freak, and my fist here is called the Deathbringer. Because if you don't get out of my way, I might just consider bringing your death here, right now. Now move."

"May I suggest a better name? I'd rather call it the "Knuckle Sandwich". Really suits that charming yet intimidating attitude of yours."

"No. Now move or I'm going to knock you out right here, in front of everyone. Do you really want to embarass yourself by getting beat up by a girl? Because I'm capable of doing so."

"See what I mean? And if you wish, I can get knocked out as much as you want, if it means making you happy. We might consider getting this done somewhere else, maybe?"

Absolutely repulsed by the nerve of this freak, Angelique responded by sending a very friendly right hook right across Ryan's face. "Get away from me, now. I'm not kidding around, I will fight you and I will win."

Ryan rubbed the side of his cheek. Well, she's a nice catch. "Well, if you need my business card, I don't have it on me right now, but the name is Ryan Cutlass - at your service." He took a small courteous bow. "If you would like that card, I would happily give it to you at my place."

"Okay, that's it." Angelique took her fighting stance. She wasn't letting this freak get away with this. As he bowed to her, she took the chance to deliver a flaming spin-kick to the side of his head. "I warned you."

Just as Angelique delivered the kick, Ryan's entire torso became shrouded in mist, snuffing out the fire and blocking the kick. He quickly bounced away from the firebender, and called back his Falcon with a whistle. He smiled. "Is it just me, or is it getting steaming hot here?"

Angelique growled as she drew three cards from her pocket, lighting them on fire along with her hand. She flung them towards Ryan, following behind them with a firey punch ready to meet his stupid head.

"Oh, a game of cards? Well that's nice!" He unscrewed the cap of his bottle, and quickly created a small shield of water to slow down the cards, enough so he could dodge them. But Angelique herself was not hindered by the flimsy shield; she instead dropped into a slide, allowing her to slide right into the weaker side of the sphere. The slide quickly turned into a double rising kick that she sent right to his jaw... or intended to. She had waited too long, and accidentally struck Ryan... well, in a place a guy shouldn't be struck.

Holy cripes, this girl is not joking. Ryan had barely avoided the hit by jumping to the side as Angelique attempted to deliver a kick to his - er - delicate part. I like the ones with that attitude.

Angelique landed back on her feet, in her fighting stance again. "Are you just gonna stand there and let me knock your lights out, or are you actually gonna fight like you have some kind of dignity?"

Ryan was mildly surprised by that last sentence. "Alright, so what kind of guy hits a lady?"

"Usually ones that don't want to admit that a girl beat them up." She then launched into a barrage of firey punches, each of them aiming either for Ryan's head or his stomach.

Quite a fiery temper, that one. Well, better cool her down. Ryan thought as he smiled and splashed what remained of his bottle onto the floor. Immediately it turned to ice, creating a slippery ice rink underneath their feet. Angelique, who was locked into her punching barrage, couldn't quite keep her balance on the newly-formed ice, which caused her to slip and fall.

"Whoa there!" Just as Angelique slipped, Ryan caught her by the back, his other arm raised
in the air, in a quite dramatic dance-pose. "You shouldn't fight on grounds you're not comfortable on, my lady!"

"I'm not your lady, freak!" She snatched her arm back, and then delivered a sharp elbow to the bridge of Ryan's nose. She then kicked him off of her, standing firmly on the ground outside of the frozen rink. "Why don't you hold still so I can finish this quickly? All your moving around is really annoying. Almost as annoying as you."

The blow sent Ryan staggering back a few steps, but he didn't slip. "You're quite fun to spend time with, you know. I bet you have loads of friends - though I doubt any are as charming as you -" he courteously bowed again, looked up at her and smiled."My lady."

"For the last time, I'm not your lady!" She yelled. A lot of passerby had stopped to watch the fight, mildly impressed with both of the fighters' skills. Angelique formed a medium-sized fireball in her hand and fired it at Ryan. "Stop calling me that!"

Ack, just found one weakness in her. Ryan tought as he drew out his cutlass and deflected the fireball towards a nearby wall. "You know, I'm not always that kind of "safety first" guy, but you could've hit someone with that. And that's slightly more lethal than a fish roll." he said, sheathing the weapon.

Angelique inhaled a deep breath. It's been a while since I've had to use this... She exhaled forcefully, breathing out a large blast of fire that slowly melted the ice that was on the ground, and evaporating it somewhat. The blast, however, wasn't large enough to reach Ryan, ending two feet in front of him. Still, the ice melted, and that was all that mattered to her. "I know it's lethal. I was hoping it'd knock your head off."

Ryan laughed. "I guess your parents didn't teach a gal like you to not play with fire, eh? Because that really wasn't smart. Although your charming looks can overcome that IQ deficiency, I'm sure." he said, and punched towards the rising steam. It immediately divided into 4 bubbles, each one wrapping itself around one of Angelique's hands and feet.

"Now that we've 'broken the ice', can we stop this childish -"

"Shut up. You forgot that there's air inside bubbles, genius." Angelique's hands and feet shot out a stream of fire, bursting the bubbles. She then ran right towards Ryan, delivering a strong uppercut to his chin and kicking the backs of his legs to bring him down to his knees. She then finished with a well-placed roundhouse kick to the back of his head, sending him crashing to the ground in defeat.

Angelique breathed a sigh of relief. "That should shut you up. Hopefully for good."

Briefly lying on the ground, Ryan coughed as dust entered his mouth. Realizing what had happened, he quickly stood back up.

Good thing I don't permanently live here. Long-distance relationships still work.

Angelique laughed at the mess Ryan was in, with his nose bleeding and his hair completely ruined. She even managed to rip part of his shroud - or whatever it was called. "Wow, you're still in one piece. Guess you can consider yourself lucky. Now, move along before I decided to finish you - again." With that, she turned back around in the way she had came, ready to go back to Julienne again. Beating someone up really calms you down. What she hadn't noticed was, in the midst of her fight, the falcon. She barely noticed the faint smile Ryan had as she walked off, and the grey feather which was sticking out of her bag.

What a freak... Angelique thought as she began her walk to return back to Central Station.

__________________

at some point I must have liked that you look like a taco addict who's had one too many back alley liposuctions

Davian Krotesse: The Challenges of boredom for a man who already knows girls just complicate things.

Davian blinked when he realized he had been talking to himself and looked around to make sure he hadn't drawn any attention to himself. It became clear he hadn't really bothered the girl next to him with one look, she was already getting up and walking away. He did a double take Wait what was that? She...I know her... She was walking towards the arguing girls, he decided to observe, but he didn't approve of men watching women in public unless they're dangerous so he merely leaned back once again and closed his eyes, all the better to hear them.

He hadn't been paying too much attention earlier but once he started listening Davian quickly realized the arguing girls were Julienne and Angelique-quite the name for such an un-angelic girl then again he shouldn't judge, he was no beacon of kindness and manners. It wasn't long before he learned it was wise not to pass judgement because once the petite girl - Ling Xiao he thought he heard - spoke Angelique became very apologetic. She definitely handled it better than HE would have. Something was off about the way Ling acted...what was she apologizing for? She was just relaxing and forcing down spicy junk food when those other two girls started making a racket and 'disturbing the peace' as his old man would put it. Somehow he didn't get a feeling of sincerity from her.

He opened one eye to watch Ling Xiao return to the bench when her part in the discussion seemed to be over, and noted the parting of the two other girls for the sake of avoiding further argument. Natural Mediator eh? People need to be willing to fight for what they believe in...but fighting over something that's not important is such a waste of effort and animosity...I can respect someone who diffuses confrontation as long as they know when to stay out of-no...there's never a good enough reason to stay out of it. "You know." He paused for a moment and almost said 'that was impressive believe it or not' but decided to go in a different direction, one he was more curious of.

"You really shouldn't eat those things if you don't like spicy food, some people just aren't built for it, I can tell you don't like them, you're turning pink. The most stoic man in the world carved out of granite still has tells, besides you're sweating, if you keep eating those you'll get a stomach ache, your acid will go into overdrive and the next few meals you eat will be none too enjoyable either." He stood up and nabbed another Veleri coin from his pouch and scowled at it with pure disdain before tossing it seemingly haphazardly back towards her, he was confident she would catch it. "Get yourself some food that'll make your stomach leap for joy instead of whimper in self pity." He shoved his hands in his pockets and stood there a moment longer until he felt the bright orange warmth of a sinking sun hit the back of his head and had an idea to spend a bit more time and walked to an unmanned little corner of the station where he might not be noticed by more than one or two people.

After he felt satisfied that nobody who would have any reason to give a crap about him or his actions would see him he slipped the drawstrings off his belt bags and allowed the two bowling ball sized spheres of almost alien metal slip out before suspending them in the air with a bit of bending, floated them up to his hands and grasped them. After a moment the right orb morphed into a straight, perfectly symmetrical double edged hand-and-a-half sword and the left became a triangular shield molded perfectly to the point where it looked grafted onto his forearm, with an emblem of two crossed blades on it. He tapped the sword on the shield once, normally he would bang it but he didn't want to draw any more attention than whomever might randomly wander over there.

With his opening ritual over he thrust the sword directly forward fast enough that one could hear the air parting before it just as the flesh of anybody he aimed it at would if it struck them. Then he followed up with a cross slash to the right and braced his shield in front of him as if to ward off a blow before slamming it forward in a mock bash that would throw a target off balance topped with one final overhead slash to bisect his imaginary opponent. Satisfied the fictitious enemy was vanquished the sword reshaped into a single edge slightly curved blade with a royal shaped cutlass hand guard, the shield melted and reformed into an identical blade. Davian did more poses similar to his sword-and-shield poses but focused more on graceful ferocity, quick but very well balanced almost like a vicious dance made almost beautiful by the orange sunset radiance glinting off of the blades at different angles. Finally both weapons liquefied and combined, then elongated into a plan seven and a half foot plain metal quarterstaff. He spun it in one hand with a mixture of what skill he had and some extra kinetic force from a bit of bending to make an impressive speed before suddenly gripping it in both hands and slamming it down as if on someone's foot, then quickly sliding his hands to the bottom of the staff and simultaneously thrusting upward into the phantom's chin.

Davian stretched with the staff still in his right hand and admired the sunset...it was his favorite thing about days, he still remembered when he and Bouho would...oh that's right...today was the anniversary, how could he forget? But how would he...Davian snapped when he realized he still had bits of scrap in his bag, he pulled it off of his back and rooted around until he pulled out various small hunks of metal. "But how to shape it..." After another minute of thinking he decided he was stumped, returned the staff to the two orbs and replaced them in their pouches with the drawstrings tightened. He got back to the area around Zuko's statue and looked around till he saw someone dressed in Fire Bender attire and hoped it was indicative of their skills.

Davain turned away from the sight of the statue for a second and pulled one of the Omni-Orbs back out so he could shape it into a heat insulated bowl, the orbs hadn't responded to heat ever since they were finished. Once it was right he made his way over to her and for the first time since he had returned to Republic City he looked humble. "Excuse me...sorry to ask something like this out of the blue, but could you melt these scraps down for me? If it's not worth the trouble I can pay." His query was accompanied by a show of the bowl with the scrap metal in it. He hoped she would accept, he had to have the tribute finished before the sun finished setting, the station was a great place to see it so the sunset would last a bit longer but they still aren't known for dragging their feet...rays...wasting their time okay?

Kalden | Central Harbor/Bending Arena

As the sun had slowly descended beneath the horizon, Kalden had been lounging in his seat on top of the building underneath the little tent/pavilion thing, facing the sea. He’d been snacking on some kind of nuts that had been named ‘Bison Bites’, which was one of the two snack-bags he’d brought up here a couple of days ago. Finally though, the sun had completely disappeared, leaving the sky above a soft orange with the dark-blue of the night’s sky looming in the horizon to the north of the city.

Getting up from his seat, he stretched his arms out above his head and yawned deeply. “Right, that’s enough relaxing. I think it’s time to go see the others and get some training done before the match. Not that I’m worried we’ll lose.” He smirked to himself, happy that their rivals, the ones that had beat them to the punch in the finals last year, had already been knocked out of the tournament early on.

He took in a deep breath and stepped onto the edge of the building, looking down at the still rather busy streets below before making a little hop forwards, causing him to plummet to the ground, the wind whipping around him and tearing at his clothes and the ponytail behind his head. Just before hitting the ground in what would be quite the anti-climax for a story, he took a deep breath through his nose and stretched his arms out to the sides before spinning around, creating an opposite-going gust of air, which quickly slowed his descent. He then landed on the sidewalk with the impact as if he had jumped down from a small box.

People around him were staring at him and muttering to their partners or friends as Kalden began his stroll down towards the bending arena, smiling to himself, quite happy with the reactions he’d gotten from people. And as he walked down the harbour with large and small ships docked in, several people and satomobiles passing him by, the Bending Arena came into view out on its lone pier. He came to a stop just before the pier began and closed his eyes, raising his hands up to hold them horizontally, flat, with his palms upwards at his chest, taking in a deep breath before exhaling. After having cleared his mind, he opened his eyes again, brimming with excitement over the match that was about to take place soon.

“Look, I ain’t askin’ you much!! Just that you actually ANSWER me when I talk to you, a’ight?!”

Kalden peeked around the corner of the entrance to the training dojo that his team had gotten permission to use before the match. The tall, rather thin and lanky firebender, Jian, was sitting on a bench with his hands on either side of him, looking off to the side, while the shorter, more robust and –definitely- more muscle-y earthbender, Dominic, was standing in front of him with his arms crossed, looking annoyed.

“Hey fellas! Hope I didn’t interrupt anything! No marital disputes or anything going on here, right?” Kalden shouted as he stepped fully into the dojo, grinning at the other two, whom then turned to look at him, Dominic looking visibly relieved and Jian looking… well, as uninterested in everything as Jian always did. He did, however, nod at him in greeting.

“Oh, hey Kal’. Y’dunno how glad I am t’see you. I dunno what’s gotten into Jian lately, he’s been at my throat all day, man!” Dominic said while flailing an arm towards Jian, who simply shook his head lightly. “… No I haven’t.”
Kalden raised his brows a little, looking from Jian to Dominic, who stared back for a moment before letting out a huff. “A’ight, maybe not ‘at my throat’, but he ain’t talkin’ to me when I talk to him! I say hey, he keeps trainin’, I go ‘You want a cup ‘f noodles?’ he goes ‘Salty’. T’hell’s that s’posed t’mean?!”

Letting out a chuckle, Kalden patted Dominic’s arm before wrapping his arm around his shoulders. Kalden was about half a head taller than Dominic, but Dominic looked like he could more or less break him in two by giving him a massage. “Look, Dom’, we’ve been a team for a long time, right?” “Right.” “And every time Jian wants to say something, that we offer or suggest him, he often replies with…” “Uh. Short sentences?” “Exactly! So when you ask if he wants noodles and he goes ‘salty’, that means…” Dominic looked up at Kalden for a moment, and Kalden was worried the guy was going to go cross-eyed for a moment before the earthbender let out a grunt and looked down, folding his arms across his chest. “… That he wants ‘em extra salty, I get ya.”

“… With soy sauce.” Jian added from the bench, looking up at the two of them. Kalden snickered and gave Dominic’s chest another pat before letting go of him and leaping up onto the bench besides Jian and plonking himself down with his legs crossed, sitting on top of the bench. “See? You just have to give it a bit more thought and not get so angry at a moment’s notice, Dom’. It’s good in the arena, but you’re just gonna frighten poor Jian one of these days.” Jian glanced over at Dominic, as if scanning him over before shaking his head lightly.

“… Right. Always so talkative, aren’t you, Jian? It’s okay though, you’re a great firebender and a nice guy anyways. Come on Dom’! Let’s do some sparring before we get started on proper training!” Kalden smiled up at Dominic, whose anger seemed to have defused almost in an instant, and he nodded, following after Kalden, going over into the other side of the room. Before moving on though, he gave Jian’s shoulder a slightly-too-rough pat. “… ‘Ey, sorry ‘bout yellin’ at ya. We good?” Jian glanced up at Dominic before nodding, raising his hand into a fist, giving a smile, which Dominic returned and gave him a fistbump right back.

Kalden turned around and took a deep breath, watching as Dominic stepped over in front of him, both of them going into their respective stances in preparation for the fight. After a moment of silence, Dominic stomped his foot into the ground, sending a stone disc from the ground into the air, which he knocked at Kalden, who swiftly lept to the side, retaliating with a high kick, sending a blast of air at him. While the two of them were sparring, Dominic started speaking.

“’Ey, Kal’. I dunno ‘bout Jian. He’s usually really quiet, but somethin’ just seems… off with him, y’know? More so than usual. ‘S like somethin’s botherin’ him, but he won’t tell.” Kalden ducked under a disc and gave a small shrug before punching a blast of air at Dominic, which he blocked with another disc. “I’m not sure about that, Dom’, he’s seemed about the same to me. Besides, he never did spend a lot of time with us anyways. Just… training, match, go home. We don’t either, but we’ve been out eating lunch and stuff every so often the two of us. Hey, remember when we got caught after making that secret tunnel from the public toilets to the base of Firelord Zuko’s statue?”

Dominic chortled quietly before getting smacked in the chest by an airblast, sending him staggering backwards, shaking his head to get his bearings back. “Urgh… hah, yeah! Where we pretended to’ve been stuck in there for years, ‘n all the people ‘round t’statue got really worked up, ‘n we had to run away from t’cops? ‘S good times.” He huffed a little, worry overtaking his rather chiselled face. “… I still can’t help but think somethin’s wrong with Jian.” Kalden waved a hand dismissively, glancing over at the quiet firebender, watching them closely, as they’d agreed that the one not sparring should be doing.

“… I’m sure it’s fine. I’ll keep an eye on him as well, alright? Oh, and you remember our secret attack? We might need it in the arena. It’s more show-off-y than anything, but the audience’ll love it.” Dominic grinned and stomped into the ground again, making a disc float up in front of him. “Pfah, yeah, I remember. ‘N it’s gonna be good! Ungh!” He pushed his fist forwards, sending the disc at Kalden’s stomach in an arc, which forced him to push his hands forwards, sending a compact blast of air our at the disc, which slowed it enough to let him use his air to keep it hovering between his hands while he grinned in return. “It’s going to be a show the likes of which none of us has seen, I feel.”

Angelique Everett
Finally, the time had arrived. The sun was slowly beginning to set, and the match was close to starting. Angelique and Julienne, both of whom had worked out their differences of Ling's dress and agreed that it was a frivolous argument, decided to do some last-minute accessory shopping at a neat little stand outside of the arena, which was being flooded by a crowd of people waiting in line to get their tickets stamped.

Angelique looked over the many accessories that the patient elderly woman had lining the wooden top of the cart as Julienne tried on some cute earrings in the mirror that was on the small wooden beam that held up the cart's roof. "Julienne, I'm not really sure I need anything new. I've got tons of bracelets already."

"Then don't buy a bracelet, girl." Julienne responded, trying to get the earring in the slot of her ear. "You always wear your hair in that boring ponytail; maybe you should get something new to switch it up."

"Hmmm..." Angelique pondered that slightly - it was true that she hadn't really relieved her hair from its ponytail prison that often, usually only when she showers and sleeps. Maybe she needed a new look. She turned to the elderly lady and asked, "Got anything for hairstyles?"

"Of course deary, in fact -" the woman reached to the far end of the cart and brought back a cute crimson headband. "- I think this would work best with that style of your's. Have you used one before?"

"Yeah, and you know what, I think you have really good tastes." She laughed, taking the headband and going over to the other mirror. She undid her ponytail, letting her hair fall out over her shoulders and her bangs cover her forehead. She pushed them back and slid the headband into her hair, allowing her bangs to frame her face off while the rest of her hair took place behind her neck. She puffed up the hair just behind the headband to give it a bit more volume. "Wow... this is amazing. I'll definitely take it." She reached into her bag and grabbed a gold coin, placing it on the desk.

"Sweetie, that's quite a bit for just a headband." The woman laughed, taking the coin. "Want anything else? I see you're really into your bracelets; I've got plenty of them to offer."

"Guess I got nothing to lose." Angelique shrugged. She looked through a lot of the bracelets, trying to find one that didn't stick out against her already-mismatching-but-still-adorable headband. Her eye landed on a thick, black, rubber bracelet. Normally she'd ignore these, as she's likes the metal ones better, but this one seemed to stick out to her because it had a saying inscribed on it in white letters. She picked it up and held it to where she could read it. "Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. Hm... I really like that quote. Who said that?"

"I don't think I know, sweetie. But I agree, it's a great quote." The woman replied, smiling. "Would you like to buy that as well?"

"Yes, I would love it." Angelique nodded, slipping the bracelet onto her mostly-barren left wrist, where few bands rested. "I guess it's still a bit much... Julienne, do you think this can cover your earrings too?"

"Yup, should be fine. These are pretty cheap." Julienne replied, coming back over with the earrings now embedded into her ear. "Pretty good bargain if you ask me, lady. Stuff like this sells for a lot more in stores."

"Oh, I don't worry too much about prices. I just like seeing people happy." The lady took the gold coin and dropped it into a sack of jingling coins before fishing out one silver and two bronze coins. She handed them to Angelique, who dropped them into the money pouch in her messenger back. "Thank you both for stopping here. You should hurry and get to that match before it starts!"

"Ooh yeah, we should get going before someone steals our seats." Angelique joked, waving goodbye to the elderly lady as the two left. The girls immediately went over to the smaller line in the express lane, waiting for their chance to get in.

After getting their tickets stamped, Angelique and Julienne finally got into the bustling lobby of the arena, where vendors dispensed numerous food items to eager and hungry patrons and groups of friends chattered about their seating arrangement. "Ugh, I'm so hungry. Do we still have enough money left? I wanna get some snacks."

"Yep, we should be fine. My mom gave me some extra because she knows how much you eat, haha." Angelique handed Julienne another gold coin. She nodded as she ran off towards the Firebending Meat Station. Angelique fondly remembers trying to apply there; they rejected her because her fireball made the chicken explode, her fire breath made it melt, and she refused to touch it with her hands, all during one test run. That wasn't a pleasant day.

"Well, look who it is."

You have got to be kidding me. Angelique mentally groaned as the male voice sounded behind her; she immediately turned around to find Nolan awaiting her, a smirk across his face as he took in the displeasurable look on Angelique's face. "Go away, Nolan, or I'll burn your face off."

He laughed, shaking his head to fix his annoyingly abundant and wavy hair. "You don't look happy to see me. Still so bitter over our breakup? I would guess that we'd be friends again by now."

"Shut up." She griped, ready to punch the offending jerk in the face. "I don't have time for your stupid antics today. I'm here to see the match with Julienne, not deal with you."

He quickly swiped up her hand, responding with, "But love, I'm here to see you," before she snatched her hand back roughly and scoffed. "I know you're still smitten with me, don't deny it."

"Oh, I deny it. I'll deny it to my death if it means getting you as far away from me as possible." She growled, clenching her fist. She was honestly hoping that she wouldn't have to knock some sense into this moron, again, right in the middle of the arena lobby. Luckily, Julienne had graced the two with her presence and a nice, wrapped piece of cooked chicken. "There you are. I believe you remember Nolan."

"Oh yeah, that idiot ex of your's that's duller than a bleached t-shirt." Julienne scowled at Nolan, who only smirked in response. "Listen, we're not here to start a fight, and we certainly wouldn't want to waste our energy on you and all your scum. How about you high tail it before I stick this chicken somewhere the sun don't shine?"

Nolan laughed, shaking his head again, causing his hair to bounce around like a circus clown would. "You two are so amusing. Hope you enjoy the game. Angelique, try not to stare too hard at Kalden this time; I think it's noticeable." He walked off towards the left stand entrance; thankfully for her, it was the one opposite of where the two were sitting.

It was true that Angelique, well, slightly had a crush on Kalden of the Force of Nature. Not like it was to the extent that she would have an entire shrine of him in her closet, but he wasn't too bad on the look side. Besides, she found his confidence in both himself and his teammates way more attractive that his looks (but again, they weren't too bad by her standards). Outside of the fact that she just really loved pro-bending, seeing Kalden in matches was almost a reason she came.

"He's so stupid." Angelique scoffed, not minding that Julienne had already been indulging in the chicken rapidly after he left. "Me, a crush on Kalden? Yeah right."

Oh yeah, it might have been useful to note that she was definitely on the fence about admitting that she thought Kalden was cute to Julienne, or anyone for that matter. So maybe it was a bigger crush than she let on. But it was still just that. Just a crush.

Julienne swallowed her greasing mouthful of chicken to respond with, "We all know you like Kalden, Angelique. There's nothing wrong with that. Just admit it and stop acting like everyone that's ever met you doesn't already know."

Angelique sighed angrily. "Let's go get our seats. I almost regret buying front row, because now I want to push you into the water."

The girls took their place in their seat, watching the stands on the opposite side fill up quickly after a few minutes of sitting. "There's gonna be a huge crowd, I can tell." Angelique commented, looking around to see if anyone else she knew - and could stand - were here. Most of her friends weren't here, since not a lot of them liked Pro-Bending enough to spend the money a ticket would cost to get in. "Guess it's just us, girl."

"The less, the merrier. That's what I say." Julienne laughed, elbowing Angelique in the arm. "And hey, at least jerkwater is sitting on the opposite side away from us. He could be sitting right next to you for all we care."

"Yeah, haha. I hope no one annoying sits beside me. I don't think I could enjoy myself if I had to sit next to someone I hate."

With that, the two girls began to patiently await for the match to start, watching the matienence people prep the platform in the center for battle.

__________________

at some point I must have liked that you look like a taco addict who's had one too many back alley liposuctions

Davian Krotesse: Finally something to do.

Davian looked down at the bowl of liquid metal in front of him, rapidly cooling but still hot enough to melt the flesh off a reckless idiot. Normally he would wear his heat retardant gloves for such a task but he was in a rush and fairly confident in his blacksmith skills by now. He reached down towards the bowl and shaped his hands as if he were cupping an invisible object above the bowl and moved them upwards, the metal flowed up between his hands and began to move. He held his hand palm up underneath the mass of levitating metal and pulled upwards with his right hand until it held the basic shape of a person.

It was time to start really molding the blob, next Davian put a thumb right next to each side of it, about where someone's armpit would be and pulled outward to create extra bits of ooze and let them hang downward in an imitation of finger-less arms. Next he pulled a hunk out of the lower middle of the figure so it had something like legs instead of a slug tail.

Afterwards he began a much more complex and very rare to know process of shaping the metal into an almost perfectly detailed figurine. Water benders can make unrivaled ice sculptures, Earth benders can carve the most proud and solemn stone statues, for a while that was it, Metal bending is one of the least precise styles but it can be done. I can't really describe in good detail what he physically did throughout the rest of his work but that's not what's important anyways, what's important is he knew exactly what he wanted to make.

One thing all forms of art made from bending have in common is their amazing detail if they're done well but that always requires one thing, a perfect mental image of what you are creating. Luckily this was something Davian had already put a lot of thought into before hand and he was ready...besides it wasn't quite the first time he had done it. Around 15 minutes after the delicate work began Davian finally straightened his back and stretched to loosen up a bit before placing onto the pedestal of Firelord Zuko's statue a small metal figurine, completely free of deformities or impurities. The little statuette depicted a handsome and strong man pointing towards the sunset with a single edged sword that had a blade like a straight katana but a cutlass' hand guard with his right hand and his left hand next to his ribs holding a small flame.

It was good work...Exactly how he saw Bouho but...too small to do him justice, it did manage to look impressive when the sunlight gleamed a fiery orange off of the sword. Davian knelt down in front of the pedestal and it's two residents and clasped his hands as if in prayer. "One day I will give you a proper memorial...and I'll finish what we started...Until then I'll just have to hope you haven't given up on me yet." After a moment of silence he stood up again and realized the sun was almost finished setting. I suppose I should go now if I want to be in time for the pro bending match...I bet if he ever made it here he'd be at the top of their rosters by now...

~~~

Davian looked up at the arena, truly a magnificent building, not just a source of entertainment but a great way for Benders to improve their quality of life and even a great form of security even though nobody seemed to know it. If there was ever a problem the police couldn't deal with this very arena would ensure that at any given time Republic City was filled with Benders skilled in combat who could rush to help. He stepped up to the ticket man and resisted the urge to snicker at his uniform. "One for the first row please." The man looked at him for a moment as if in disbelief that someone dressed like the reprobate in front of him could afford a front row ticket to pro bending. "That will be-" Davian interrupted the quite mistaken ticket man by slamming three Veleri coins on his little counter. "Put whatever's left over towards wherever, I support the sport...excuse the rhyme." Swiped the ticket off of the counter and made his way inside without another word.

"27 A? That would be...Aw crap." He stopped dead at the sight of his seat, which just so happened to be next to the girls he had heard arguing at Central Station earlier...more specifically the louder one: Angelique. Hope I can actually HEAR the match. She didn't seem to notice him earlier at the station, the only thing that ever stood out about him was his eyes, so he just sat down as quietly as he could and looked forward in anticipation of the match.

Ryan Cutlass - Water Bender

"I told you, you should have come home right after they left you. Why don't you ever listen to me, lad?"

Ryan wasn't listening, and kept staring at the ceiling fan while his uncle applied a cream to his chest and put a bandaid on the bridge of his nose.

"And a firebender, too! What on earth were you thinking?"

"She's a nice girl."

Ryan's uncle sighed as he handed him back his shirt. "You get in trouble one more time, boy, and you're sleeping outside. You want your father to hear about this?"

Ryan paused for a moment, and looked at his Uncle's frowning face. "... no." He stood up, and thanked his uncle. "I gotta - erm - call back Falco. I left him at a friend's house. I'll be back later tonight, promise." Without giving time for his uncle to answer, he dashed towards the door and left the appartment, snatching his coat from the doorhandle.

Gotta finish what I started, right?

A few minutes later, he arrived at the Central Station, where he had last seen her. I should ask somebody where she went. He looked around. Most people had gone home and only a few remained in the street. Ryan decided to walk up to the nearest person he found. It was a young cigarette vendor, who was packing up his bags for the day.

"Hi. Have you seen a firebender around here? I'm looking for her."

The young man looked up and smiled. "Well, my friend, the only firebender I know around here is him." he gestured towards Zuko's statue.

Ryan smiled at the guy's humour. I should use that sometime. "Well yeah, but I said 'her'. You're sure you haven't seen one around? Blonde, ponytail, small black bag, charming outfit?"

The vendor scratched his chin. "Actually, now that you mention it, I think I saw that girl hanging out with some other skinny one. They went towards the pro-bending arena. The blonde one was really loud, though. Is she like, a sister of yours?"

Ryan thought of an excuse. "Em, no she's - thanks." He quickly left the vendor and scurried off towards the pro-bending arena.

Ryan was finally able to grace the arena with his presence, having narrowly avoided a confrontation with the vendor that would have revealed that he was actually interested in Angelique and would've made him look, well, fairly creepy. But that was beside the point. The bigger concern was that the line to get in was quite a long wait, so he was given no choice but to express lane this thing and get inside before it was too late.

Once inside, he scouted around to try and find his lovely lady. Where would she be? She couldn't have gotten that far so fast... AH! There she is!

Ryan spotted Angelique standing in the middle of the lobby, patiently awaiting for someone. Before he could approach her, however, another guy with extremely wavy hair beat him to the punch. Who's that guy?

He noticed that Angelique didn't look too happy to see the other guy, as she immediately adorned an angry face as she began talking to him. Ryan, being the chivalrous man he was, had to get closer and figure out exactly what was going on. He quickly weaved behind groups of people before taking a hiding spot behind a support beam that was close to the arguing pair.

"Still so bitter over our breakup? I would guess that we'd be friends again by now."

Ryan let out an angry growl. Oh hell no. There was no way this guy was Angelique's ex-boyfriend. If he even tries to holla at my girl, we'll need to have a friendly conversation. Soon.

The two continued to bicker for a few more minutes before another girl holding a comically-wrapped chicken arrived, threatening to stick said chicken in a place "where the sun don't shine". Ryan swiftly peaked around the beam to catch a glimpse of the other girl, hoping she was equally as attractive and engaging as Angelique was. He raised an eyebrow. I was right after all. None of her friends even come close to matching up to her. With more threats, the random guy who Ryan found out was named Nolan finally left the two girls alone, but not before mentioning something about Angelique have a crush on someone named Kalden.

Man, she really doesn't have taste. Starting to think I'm not the only one who's under her crushing spell. The air-bender from the match, eh? We'll see what happens when he gets caught in my whirlpool.

As he thought of a dozen ways to destroy the shameless idiot in front of him, Ryan subconciously remembered a guy named Kalden from his childhood. A neighbour, maybe? A classmate? A charcter from a book? He couldn't remember, but he had more improtant things to do.

After debating Angelique's crush on this guy that Ryan was also probably gonna beat up, the two girls left, leaving Ryan alone. He watched as the clown-haired guy walked towards the right exit, still smiling to himself.

"Hey you! Yeah, the clown-haired dude! Mind if I have a word with you?"

Nolan turned around as a random person rudely addressed him. It was some skinny guy, with a really weirdo hairdo, who didn't look too happy to see him. "You don't have a lot of room to talk about bad hairstyles, bub. What do you want?"

Ryan smiled at Clownhair's comment, then frowned again. "You see, that girl you just talked to, she so happens to be my catch. Laws of the sea, you know?"

"Your 'catch'? What the heck are you talking about, you freak?" Nolan was utterly confused, but also extremely angry that this random person had the nerve to talk to him like this. "You mean Angelique? I really doubt she would be interested in a loser like you."

"I'm gonna get this done with quickly. You know the rule between guys. The best keeps her. I'm obviously more competent than you in anything, so back off, bro."

"Keeps her? You think I'm actually interested in that witch?" Nolan laughed loudly at the suggestion of it. "You can have her. If you can tolerate her terrible attitude and equally as terrible looks, then all power to ya. I've had my share of her, and it sucked."

Witch? Ryan thought. That's it. He walked up to him and tried to push him onto the ground. "Say that again and you'll pay, tough guy!"

Except, well, Nolan was a lot bigger than Ryan was, so the push really didn't do much. Instead, Nolan pushed Ryan and sent him to the ground. "What are ya gonna do, string bean? I could snap you in half if I wanted to."

Ryan quickly got back up, surprised that this guy hadn't apologized yet. He looked at the drink Nolan was holding. Suddenly, the liquid within shot upwards out of the cup, hitting Nolan smack in the face, blinding him for a few seconds, allowing Ryan to leg-sweep him onto the floor.

Nolan grunted as he hit the floor, his face and hair drenched in the soda he was drinking. "Okay loser, you're getting it now!" He jumped back up and swung at Ryan, ready to bash his face in with every ounce of strength he could muster.

"Oh, poor guy. Your clown-hair got wet?" Ryan snickered as he easily dodged the punch. "How about a little chit-chat about manners, my friend?" He unscrewed the cap off his bottle and a stream of water shot out, coiling itself around Nolan like a snake. "After all, you said Angelique had a 'crush' on you, right? I'm sure you don't want to get crushed by this, then."

"What are you talking about, moron?" Nolan griped as he struggled in the weird water coil. "I said she had a crush on Kalden, from the Force of Nature, not me. I couldn't care less if she was interested in me."

"Well, guess what, Clownhair. It matters to me." In a flash, Ryan pulled out his cutlass, and swung it right at Nolan's face. A few seconds later, a long strand of hair dropped onto the floor. "Just a little reminder."

Nolan was seriously confused. "What are you even talking about? I have nothing to do with Angelique anymore. Seriously, save yourself the trouble of having to deal with her. She's not a fun person to be around. You'd be better off finding someone different."

"Thanks for the advice." Ryan sneered as he sheathed his sword, and a couple or security guards appeared.

"Nothing going on here, guys."

"Uh, that's a lie." Nolan said as the water snake dropped onto the ground. "This freak of nature attacked me for no reason. All I was trying to do was go to my seat and he waterbended my drink on me and then tried to cut my head off with his stupid sword. I don't even know who he is."

The guard turned to Ryan. "Is this true?"

Ryan coughed, and walked up to the guard. He reached in his pocket, pulled out a few coins and proceeded to shake the guard's hand. "You know how people get excited at matches. I'm a supporter of the Force of Nature, and he supports the Beetlefrogs. Just a friendly argument, sir."

The guard questioningly looked at Ryan and back at Nolan, who was not in a good mood at the moment. "I see... well boys, the next time you want to have an argument, do so without getting physical, especially in the lobby. Take the fight on your own grounds."

Nolan was dumbfounded as the guards just walked away without even questioning Ryan's story. "Seriously? Man, whatever. Keep your stupid girlfriend, I don't care. She's your issue now." With that, Ryan began to angrily storm down into the seating area.

He turned around to Nolan. "Where she is sitting?"

"On the opposite side from here, I dunno. She's usually front row to these things." Nolan replied. "Now, leave me alone." With that, he left in a furious rage of fury to his seat.

Ryan was surprised Clownhair answered him. He stood there for a moment, before hesitantly replying: "Thanks!" and running to the designated area.

It didn't take him long to find Angelique and Julienne, chatting excitedly, waiting for the game to start. But - Oh, you have got to be kidding me. The only free spot next to his lady was taken. How in the ocean am I supposed to talk with her now?

Xiu’s encounter with Angelique and Julienne seemed to go by perfectly, definitely having made a positive impact. When she sat back down, though, the boy next to her started talking to her. Apparently she had even less endurance than she thought because he had quickly noticed that she wasn’t exactly a frequent buyer of fire flakes and called her out on it. "You really shouldn't eat those things if you don't like spicy food, some people just aren't built for it, I can tell you don't like them, you're turning pink. The most stoic man in the world carved out of granite still has tells, besides you're sweating, if you keep eating those you'll get a stomach ache, your acid will go into overdrive and the next few meals you eat will be none too enjoyable either." He then stood up and turned, tossing a coin at her with his back facing her. "Get yourself some food that'll make your stomach leap for joy instead of whimper in self pity."

The coin was missing the typical square hole in the middle showing that it wasn’t a Yuan, maybe a foreign currency. It had a gold color, and judging by the arc at which it fell, it was probably heavy, supporting the idea that-

“Ow!” Xiu yelped in her high-pitched voice so that it was almost like a squeak as the gold coin hit her in the head. It seemed that her reflexes weren’t near as quick as her mind. Reaching down, she picked up the fallen coin, finishing her thought that the weight during it’s fall supported the idea that it was actual gold. Now that she had it in her hand for closer inspection though, she realized that it was simply a Veleri coin. How did this metalbender boy get his hands on something like this, though? He likely had connections to the village from which these came because otherwise he wouldn’t be so willing to just give one away. Soon after donating the rare coin, the boy simply left. “Thank you very much! I don’t think I’ve done anything to deserve this, but it’s rude to refuse a gift, isn’t it?” she shouted after him, assuming that he was less likely to respond if she had tried to refuse the gift or give it back. She was tempted to follow him and see if she could learn more about this boy who had piqued her interest, but one look at the sky told her that she had other things to do.

The sun had already gone down and the pro bending match would soon start. She didn’t have a ticket yet, so that was an issue. What I would give to be able to teleport wherever I wanted, she thought as she got up and left Central Station. Angelique and Julienne had already gone, so she didn’t have to bother with saying bye. Finally having shoved all the fire flakes down her throat, Xiu took off running to get back to her study. As she ran, though, two factors caused her to change her course. First: the sun had just finished its descent so unless she used her airbending to run she wouldn’t make it to the arena in time. Second: Her desire to keep her Avatar identity hidden led her to not use airbending to run and so she was getting tired very quickly. In fact, she hadn’t even gone two blocks before she was gasping for breath. How could anyone think running marathons was fun? She stopped and leaned on a wall, catching her breath as she considered another course of action. She could probably pay her way in with the Veleri coin, but something like that was probably best saved for something else considering that she only had one. She could also try her hand at persuading the ticket checking person, but there was too much uncertainty with that for it to be attempted without backup plans, one of which being the coin. So she had intended to create a fake ticket with the materials she had at her study to use in case persuasion failed so that the coin could be saved for second-to-last, the last option being to sneak in. Thanks to the aforementioned factors, though, the ticket plan was no longer viable.

Xiu closed her eyes and focused on her mental map, seeing if there were stores around with what she needed. Unfortunately, even if there were she probably wouldn’t be able to afford all the stuff without using her coin. She slumped to the ground with a sigh. After deciding she was going to see the match, why didn’t she just go back and forge a ticket right away? Her intelligence was great, but it seemed like her wisdom still needed some work. Regardless, there wasn’t much she could do about it now so she instead started making her way to the arena. She hoped that she had enough backup plans to get her in without too much trouble, and if all else failed she could always play the “Avatar” card, although she would prefer not to.

By the time Xiu got there, it was probably around 7:30, give or take a few minutes. It was difficult trying to tell time without the sun, but she hadn’t gotten around to getting a watch. She should probably get on that sometime soon. For now, though, she had to worry about getting into the arena. There was a massive line waiting to get in and see Force of Nature’s showdown against the Beetlefrogs so Xiu situated herself at the back of it. While in line, she debated whether it would be easier for her to try persuading the ticket checker for admission, trying to get one of the few tickets that hadn’t been sold yet (with only front row seats fitting that category) or trying to get one of the other people in line to get her in. The final option would mean getting another person’s ticket if it worked and then they wouldn’t be able to get into the game they paid to see. The little bit of guilt she’d feel if she were to succeed might be enough to throw off her ruse and give her away. The second option was probably not very likely to work either, considering how difficult it was to get those tickets it would probably be just as difficult to talk her way to one. That left the first option and how she would go about it.

Xiu was steadily approaching the arena door where the tickets were being checked so when she thought she was within earshot of the checker she started looking through her purse. She wasn’t actually looking for anything, but she then started rummaging through it vigorously as if she couldn’t find this thing she wasn’t actually looking for. Donning an expression of panic and worry, she said, “Oh, no. No, no, no, no! Where is it? Did I drop it? Maybe someone stole it…” She spoke quickly and frantically, making it clear what was wrong while trying to ensure that it wasn’t obvious she was making a scene. Xiu’s voice was hushed as if she were trying to keep it down, yet she ensured was still loud enough to cross the distance she needed it to. Alright, time to get this started.

Xiu stepped up to the man checking tickets, still searching through her purse, and prepared to continue with her plan, but then something unexpected happened. “She’s with me,” said a man’s voice from behind her. Her head turned quickly to see who this unexpected turn of events was and saw a tall, handsome young man in a fancy black suit holding up an emblem that was most likely some sort of family crest. The man was probably the son of a wealthy family stopping by to see the finals, nothing too far fetched, but why was he helping her? There was the chance that he was just being a good samaritan, an idea most would consider supported by his gentle smile, but she remained skeptical and kept the possibility of him having ulterior motives open. It wasn’t like she was the first one to try getting in without a ticket. It was then that something occurred to her. This mystery man was influential enough to get in with just his identity, although unfortunately she hadn’t been able to see what it looked like. Normal seats were sold out so that meant only front row seats and VIP seats remained, and if he wanted a front row seat he would have flashed his crest to the ticket salesman so that meant he was going for the VIP. A person with that sort of clout wouldn’t even need to wait in line, and even if they did it wouldn’t be the back of the line. But then that meant...had this man targeted her specifically?

Several questions and thoughts raced through her mind as to what could be going on, the most prominent being whether or not this mystery man knew of her identity. Her processes were interrupted by the person whom she was now the guest of. “Shall we go, milady?” He put his hand around her waist and led her on, Xiu donning a smile to prevent any suspicion of her suspicion. They walked in silence as he led her to the VIP seats just as she had suspected. While it would probably have been best to hightail it outta there, she couldn’t help but wonder who this man was and what he wanted. Also, she had an airbender sentry on her tail to keep her safe in case it went wrong.

The two got to their seats in a luxurious balcony area reserved for rich people who preferred to watch the games in comfort where Xiu finally broke the silence. “Thank you so much for helping me, but how could I ever repay you for taking me as your guest? These seats are marvelous! We don’t even know each other’s names!” She stood up and bowed at him. “My name is Ling Xiao, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

The mystery man looked to her and smiled, chuckling for a moment before saying, “Very nice to make your acquaintance, Ling. May I ask you to please stop insulting my intelligence by lying to me?” His voice remained just as gentle and kind throughout, contrasting with his finishing words. Xiu could now safely say that he was planning something, but what? She looked at every aspect of him she could see to try and figure something out. Hair: well groomed, soft, brown. Nothing. Face: clean shaven, robust chin, bright blue eyes. Nothing. Clothes: fancy three-piece fitted suit, equally nice pants, equally nice shoes. Nothing. Body: tall, lean, toned, flawless skin that is neither tan nor pale. Conclusion: most likely able to handle himself in a fight but has either never had to or has only had one-sided encounters. Nothing to indicate bending affinity, interests, past, or identity besides that of a handsome, wealthy young man. Has clearly put much effort into both maintaining the appearance of the perfect man as well as into hiding anything that could be spotted by eyes such as hers and reveal anything about him he doesn’t want to reveal. He is clever, perhaps even genius, constantly seeing and reacting, playing a mental chess game with the world. Likely has connections and safeguards to ensure that anything he wants to do gets done without a hitch. Nobody else would take this much care to be unreadable while sending out an alternate and conversely easy-to-read message, nobody besides herself anyway.

Xiu sighed and took a step back from him, preparing for any possible situation to come. Someone like this couldn’t be talked out of anything. “What do you need from me, then?” She dropped the cheerful-yet-humble girl act and was now pure Xiu. “You wouldn’t have revealed the fact that you knew I was on to you unless you had something to gain from me that you couldn’t get from Ling. With her, you only need to ask, but you clearly asked for me. So I’m asking you again, what do you want?” She stared straight into his eyes as she spoke, trying to place him on equal grounds with her. “Also, would it be too much to ask you for a name, or is that a secret too?”

While Xiu had discarded her persona, the man continued talking with a smile as he always had as if he had seamlessly integrated the mask and the face into one. “Must you be in such a rush? Sit down and enjoy the match. You’re my guest, remember?” Was he using that last line to suggest that she was bound to him in some way? She needed to confirm this and she also needed answers she wasn’t getting.

“Tell me or I walk,” she said firmly, walking in front of the exit. “As you said, I’m your guest. The arena security won’t bat an eye. You don’t have any private security here either, goons to trap me here for you, and even if you do they’re too far away to catch me if I decide to make a break for it.”

The man seemed unfazed, his kindly smile unwavering. “I don’t need security because you’re not going to do it.”

Xiu halted. What was he talking about? Was he suggesting that he had other measures to keep her from leaving such as a trap or bloodbending? Blue eyes could mean waterbender, but it wasn’t a full moon and benders able to bloodbend without it were extremely rare. Or was he suggesting that he had some sort of leveraging information to blackmail her into staying? The man waited a few moments before explaining. “It’s simple. You won’t leave this room until you have your answers. You’re clever, able to decipher a person with a look. With a talent for finding answers, it bothers you to not have them. I can only imagine how you’d feel when they are right in front of you but just out of your reach. You won’t rest until you can figure out what you need to reach just that little bit farther and take what you want, what you need. That’s why you won’t leave. So I ask again. Come back here, sit down, and enjoy the match with me please.” Xiu was speechless. This stranger was just as skilled as she was, maybe even moreso. He was a dangerous person who probably didn’t have a single weapon on him. He didn’t need any. She walked back to her seat because, while she didn’t want to admit it, he was right. “Oh, and for a name? Just call me Shun Feng Er." Xiu realized that this was a fake name, but he had chosen as his name a word meaning "all-knowing". For now, Xiu couldn't determine how true or untrue that was, so instead she turned her gaze to the empty pro-bending platform and waited for the match to start while trying to figure out how to get answers, just as he had said she would.

Davian Krotesse and Angelique Everett:
The start of a complicated and oddly shaped relationship.

Angelique began to grow bored of having to sit for a while when someone attempted to make their way to their seat in the row she was sitting in. As the guy pushed his way past, Angelique noticed that it was that supercute Metalbender from earlier today that she had seen for at least two seconds - and he was much cuter when you got a better look at him.

Julienne nudged Angelique with her elbow, making a suggestive nod towards the guy who sat down in the seat next to her leaned back immediately, fixating a bored gaze towards the workers on the platform. Angelique rolled her eyes.

The match was taking quite some time to start, and Angelique was starting to get bored. "Julienne, where are the benders? Wasn't the match supposed to start at 8? It's already 8:07."

"Calm down, girl." Julienne reassured, her mouth filled with endless chicken that made her words sound like a jumbled mess of "alhhm wowwn goihl". She swallowed the greasy food and shook her hair, letting it fall back where it was supposed to be. "The Benders gotta prepare properly. It's only seven minutes."

"It hasn't been like that for any of the other matches." Angelique countered.

"Well, this is the finals. There's probably a lot more stuff that needs to be done before they can start." Julienne explained. She was eager to end this conversation and get back to that super smexy chicken breast in her hand that was wailing her name with its wonderfully greasy skin and meat. "You know all those introductions that they do during the last few matches? They probably have to set those up, y'know."

"They've had all day though." Angelique replied, starting to feel a bit stingy. "Why do they have to do everything last minute? Are the employees all high-school students?"

"Well, if you account for interns..."

And so, Angelique and Julienne began another debacle in the stands. It wasn't nearly as loud as their argument in the station, but it was definitely more audible than it should be. A few people in the back looked down the stands to see what the commotion was, and someone muttered that the two girls were really annoying.

The stadium staff were taking far too long to start things up whatever they were doing, just another time Davian wished he had brought a novel with him or something. He leaned back a bit more and was beginning to finally relax with the knowledge that the noise of the match starting would surely wake him up if he took a little nap... when his eyes shot back open at a sound that was quickly becoming all too familiar.

"Look, all I'm saying is that if you're getting paid a lot of money to work here, you should be doing your job on time." Angelique snapped. "Believe me, I know the wages for people who work here. These people should be working Godspeed with their payment."

"They're human, Angelique. You seem to forget that a lot nowadays. They can only work so fast."

"Work? Someone down there is on a break!"

"How would you know that?"

"I used my eyes, genius!"

"Don't you wear contacts?"

"That has nothing to do with this!"

"Excuse me! Some of us would like to actually hear what happens when things finally get moving if you don't mind." Davian had stood up in hopes it would help make his point. He hadn't had anything interesting to do or even watch for weeks and he wasn't gonna let two girls ruin the first interesting event he had going.

Angelique turned around immediately as the Metalbender spoke, rather rudely at that. She stood up and faced him. She was definitely shorter than he was (he probably casted a shadow on her) but she was unafraid nonetheless. "You're excused. Mind your own buisness, metalhead. And don't think that standing up gives you some kind of advantage over me. I might be 5"4, but you don't scare me in the slightest."

Davian tried to stop the scowl that threatened to take over his face but his attempts were a rousing failure. "Something isn't just your business anymore when it happens in the public forum, especially if it's disrupting other people's enjoyment. Besides, I don't scare people; either I'm civil or I'm not, and you'd know if I wasn't being civil. Just do everyone a favor and keep it down don't you know there are people here who had to save up for months to be here?"

Anglique scoffed, not believing that someone was talking to her like this again. Maybe it was a full moon. "Alright buddy, listen here. If we were bothering other people, they would say something. But they didn't, because we're not. You're the only person who has an issue, and frankly your attitude gives me reason to not care at all about what you think. So why don't you keep it down, and leave me and my friend alone? I've had enough with idiot guys like you today, and I'm at the end of my wits with people like you. So shut up, sit down, and -"

"Angelique!" Julienne slapped her arm, preventing her from saying what could have been a rather offensive statement. "Just sit down. There's no need to make a big scene."

"There's a need. I've dealt with Bird Freak and Nolan today, and frankly Metalhead here is the straw that's breaking the camel's back." She turned back to Davian, still talking to Julienne. "And I think he should sit down before I break something, preferrably one of his limbs."

"Don't be so sure." Davian swept his arm around him at some of the people who had been muttering when the two girls started being noisy and now were just agape in stunned silence. "A lot of people are too scared or lazy to speak up at people like you, especially when it's a girl with a chip on her shoulder. Girls like you just run their mouths all day because they think they're tough and most people wouldn't even raise their voice to you let alone stand up to you because they would never hit a girl."

He almost jabbed a finger near her face, but realized that wouldn't help and decided against it. "Well I've got news for you: whatever other guys you've dealt with aren't my problem, or anyone else's. And people a lot scarier than you have tried to break things on me with less than stellar results. So why don't you listen to your friend and try to be a bit more consi-"

Angelique had had enough. She angrily grabbed Davian by the collar of his shirt and drug him down to eye level with her. Her face was completely red, and her free hand had some inviting flames around it in addition to being clenched into a nice fist. "Alright buddy, you shut up and listen. I do not run my mouth, and I do not act tough. I am tough. I've beaten up guys a lot bigger than you, believe me. You wouldn't even be a worthy challenge. Frankly, I don't appreciate the tone you're giving me, and breaking any part of your body right now wouldn't even pose difficult for me. I wouldn't bat an eye. If you think that you're some kind of righteous preacher who can change people with one rude speech, you are so wrong. I recommend you zip your trap and sit back down in your seat before I take this fist and beat you back to this morning. Got it?"

"Oh yeah? That's a funny coincidence; it was just this morning that I was thinking it was too long since I had a good fight."

"Well, I'm more than eager to accept that challenge. Right now, if you want."

Davian smirked at Angelique and noticed she was quite the looker thanks to the closeness of their red faces. He put a hand on the arm that was squeezing his shirt so hard and stood up so that they were still face to face but now Davian was at his full height and Angelique's feet were about half a foot off of the floor.

This little jerk is asking for it... although he isn't really little from what I can tell. Angelique was not hindered by this cocky action - in fact, she encouraged it. She put her right foot on Davian's thigh, helping her keep her balance. "Want me to knock you out up here instead? I'm down for that."

Julienne was starting to get concerned. She was beginning to think that Angelique was legitimately going to fight this guy in the middle of the arena. A lot of people in the stands were whispering as they tried to predict the winner of this possible battle and debating whether or not someone should step in. "Uh guys... maybe you shouldn't -"

"No way; if I had to throw little ol' you from up here I might wreck that pretty face and I'm just not sure I could live with myself after that. If I was going to beat down a spicy little girl like yourself it would be somewhere your friend could pick up the pieces and cheer you up afterwards." He stopped his tirade for a moment and noticed Julienne for the first time since he'd stood up. Hold up a second... Am I really getting into it like this in public? Maybe the more feminine one has a point.

He let go of Angelique's arm much to the disappointment of the people who were starting to bet on the winner. "Listen, I've got better things to do than indulge a fiery little vixin with an attitude problem -"

But Angelique was far from done. "Don't think your backhanded compliments are gonna get you out of this. I could effortlessly fight you right in the stands, right now, and I would win. I know I would. If anything, you'd be the one in pieces. Ever felt the embarrassment of losing to a girl? It's not pretty."

Julienne slid between the two, afraid that Angelique would lunge at this guy any moment. "Oooookay, I think that's enough for right now. Angelique, maybe you'd like to switch seats with me? We can avoid more problems like this, and maybe not get kicked out."

"Fine. Hand me my bag." Angelique crossed her arms, angry that Julienne stopped her from tearing into this guy - which she almost wanted to do in more way than one, to be honest.

Davian couldn't stop himself from bristling again when the girl just would not let it go that when she stood up, he snatched her bag by its strap and thrust it at her mockingly. "Here you go ma'am, to your seat please."

"Alright punk, that's it!" Angelique threw her bag on the seat and attempted to jump forward, hands ablaze, until Julienne immediately stepped in and blocked her with her body. "Move Julienne!"

"Okay, this is a bit out of control." Julienne faked a smile at the guy as she struggled to hold back her flaming friend - and she definitely struggled, having to use the seat as leverage to keep herself from tumbling over. "I'm really sorry for, eh, her. I'll do my best to keep her under control, 'kay? I would just... not irritate her more. She's a lot stronger than I am and I don't think I can do this forever. If you could just apologize - and I'll make her say it too - I'm sure this'll just blow over and we can all be bitter penpals."

When Julienne spoke up more seriously and stopped Angelique from really starting a fight, Davian finally thought for a moment and realized what he was getting into. "You know what? You're absolutely right. I should have just spoken my opinion and let that be that." He grabbed the bag again and, this time, handed it to Julienne so she could give it to Angelique. "Getting into a fight over some noise is just stupid. I... I don't know what came over me; I bet we made a way bigger disturbance just now. I'm a huge hypocrite." He sat back in his seat for a moment and then turned towards them again. "Maybe a good argument with a Fire bending girl just got me a little hot under the collar - and please ignore how close that is to a pun. I'm serious, believe it or not."

Angelique had finally calmed down enough to listen to Metalhead apologizing, and, well, she was both flattered and somewhat attracted. "Well, heh... that happens." She laughed a little, and then a little more when she realized how unrational she was being. "I guess I can be loud sometimes... Yeah, sorry about that. I guess I'm just in a bad mood today is all. Y'know, dealing with guys all day does that. Okay, so I guess that's that. Sorry everyone!" She addressed the patrons in the stands who had been eagerly expecting a fight. "No fight!"

They all groaned and returned to whatever they were doing, someone mentioning that, "they shouldn't start a ruckus if they don't finish it." Julienne turned to Angelique, handing her the bag. "Okay, do you think you can be a big girl and sit in your seat without threatening to kill someone?"

Angelique rolled her eyes. "You're not my mother, Julienne." Nonetheless, she still sat down in her original seat - mostly because she actually thought that little dispute was hot in more ways than one, and was interested in knowing more about this Davian guy. "I'm not five."

"Well, you certainly act like it." Julienne commented, sitting down as well. Angelique almost countered back with a harsh comment, but figured that she was a bit worn out from the arguing, and decided against it.

"I gotta say." His tone was still a bit demeaning, but now Davian had a nostalgic smile on his face while he spoke to Julienne. "I wish I still had someone like you around to reign me in. I used to not get in to arguments so much..." A sudden mischievous impulse over took him and he stood up to yell even though nobody important would hear him. "Hey, how about getting this show on the road before we do something else stupid?!" Satisfied that he admitted what a jerk he was, he sat back down and crossed his arms to wait for the match. He peeked one eye back towards the girls and chuckled a bit. Arguing with a cute girl is definitely more fun than beating up some random jerk, that's for sure.

Angelique did her best to cover her face once the guy stood up and yelled about their crazy arguing antics, which had caused some people in the stands to laugh. "Oh God, now I'm starting to feel embarrassed..." She whispered to Julienne, who simply laughed in return. "Stop me before I do something like that again, please."

The entire arena was brimming with excitement as the two teams were tied 1-1, going into the final round. People were shouting and cheering for either their favourite teams, or their favourite fighters. Both The Force of Nature and The Beetlefrogs were standing at the ready, staring each other down. It was now or never, and in the next few minutes, there was definitely going to be a victor.

Suddenly, the buzzer went off, signalling the start of the round and the two teams went at each other, one-on-one to start with. Kalden was fighting against the Beetlefrogs' earthbender, Jian, the firebender, was battling against their waterbender and Dominic was duking it out with their firebender. The entire fight seemed to be at a stalemate, despite the rocks, water, fire and blasts of air colliding in the air, sending everything scattering across the field, and the fighters jumping back and forth in the arena, attacking, dodging and counterattacking against their adversary.

After making a miscalculation in movement, however, Kalden got hit square in the chest with one of the discs, knocking all of the air (Hardy har) out of him and causing him to tumble back to the second section of the arena. He swiftly got to his feet again, however and managed to deflect another pair of discs coming at him, forced into the defensive, wincing as he continued to fight off the ferocious other team.

"Jian! Switch it up, let's get this over with!" Kalden shouted out, and the silent firebender delivered a roundhouse kick, followed by a quick one-two jab combo, sending the other team's waterbender into the defensive. Jian then threw himself into a roll towards the left side of the first area that him and Dominic were in, at the same time as Kalden gracefully spun, dodging two discs, which landed him square in the middle.

With this change in placement, Kalden gave a grin. "Combo-time!" The three of them simultaneously began their massive counter-attack, consisting of Dominic jumping into the air and stamping his feet onto the ground, causing two discs to fly into the air at once, jabbing both fists forwards, one above the other, knuckles facing each other, which sent both discs flying at chest and leg-height. Jian thrust his fists forwards, sending a pair of fireballs forwards before leaping and kicking both legs forwards, sending an additional two fireballs flying at the earthbender. Finally, Kalden lept into the air in a backwards flip, using his momentum to send a vertical gust of air at the firebender on the other team, stretching his right arm out, which he landed on as he pulled himself into a spin, which gave him the opportunity to follow up just a second later with a horizontal kick and gust of air.

The enemy team, trying to both defend themselves and their team mates were slammed into by The Force of Nature's attacks in a manner of seconds, which sent them tumbling to the edge of the arena and over it, all three of them falling into the water below, leaving the audience to yell out in a roar of excitement which almost shook the entire stadium.

The commentator was out of his seat, mouth open in shock as he stuttered out his shocked congratulations.

"The winners... are... The Force of Nature! What an intense display of teamwork, a clean knock-out!"

The crowd, hundreds of spectators, burst into applause - young girls and women alike screaming at the pro-bending stars who had successfully stormed to first place. The victors celebrated on the battle podium, enjoying the admiration of their adoring fans.

"Newbies luck," his assistant, and older gentleman, muttered as the microphones were turned off, "Kids these-" His sentence was suddenly cut short.

"Reg, you're always the pessimist," the older man sighed, still observing the crowd below their crows-nest office. The noise, even from so far below, was enormous - the enthusiasm around pro-bending always amused the seasoned commentator. A red haze of light blocked his view through the window, reflected from behind - turning was the last thing the pro-bending commentator managed before slumping to the floor.

- - - - - -

The attackers hit hard and fast. Their targeting was precise, organised and they were well equipped for the job. Sleek, black and metallic gloves covered their hands and forearms, a subtle red glow eminating from an eye-like marking on their palm. They lacked any uniform, having all come disguised as guests, making them invisible and readily dangerous.

They had waited for the crowd to thin slightly before going for their target. The audience, the non-benders of the city, were of no use to them. The majority of assailants stayed in the stadium, after removing the security with relative ease, the stadium would work like a fort - almost impossible for the authorities to reclaim it.

Their target? Rumours and whispers, shadows in the night, had pinpointed the Avatar's location. Xiu Lim was in Republic City.

"Grab all the Benders you can find," the highest ranking assassin told his colleagues, his team spreading out down the tunnels beneath the grand stadium. They had already raided the team rooms - he had made the Airbender a specific target, the boy would make a fantastic prize for the boss. They knew the Avatar's name, however there was little information other than that.

- - - - - -

Aftermath:

After the game, your characters have become divided. Kalden has been kidnapped from his team's changing quarters. Ryan has also been kidnapped as he left the stadium, at the start of the chaos. Both characters were knocked out and carried out via an escape route - they will awaken to find themselves in the cabin of a small boat, handcuffed to furniture, in the middle of Yue Bay.

Davian got caught in the chaos, when the first assailants struck. He is currently in a huge crowd of people, benders and non-benders, trying to assess the situation.

Angelique and Xiu had already left the stadium by the time the attackers took over. The doors back in are now locked, however there is obviously something wrong.

Your task is to free the civilians, as well as keep yourself out of danger - remember, it would be wise to keep the Avatar's identity secret. It is up to you how your characters collide and interact in this event; joint posts are advised.

Julienne Murphy & Davian Krotesse (& Angelique)Davian leaned forward in his seat, trying to get a better view of the match. He had to admit he was glad he hadn't really gotten into it with that Angelique girl - while the results would surely be quite interesting, he was there to see pro-bending and not to have a learning experience, however violent and steamy it could've gotten.. "Aw, come on! You guys lost your lead!" He couldn't resist shouting when Kalden got knocked into the water last on his team, tying up the game. He felt a little ridiculous yelling, but this was really the point when pretty much everyone was yelling.

"Knock them out, Kal! Blast those losers!" Angelique screamed, fist pumping over the railing. "Hit 'em with a disk Dom! Right in the face! That's how to do it! Show 'em what you're made of!"

Julienne was pretty shocked about how into Angelique was getting in this match. It was the first time she had attended one with her, and it was shocking to see her friend being loud without being rude. Julienne herself wasn't feeling very excited, but it was pretty funny when one of the guys got knocked down. "Yeah, you can do it... person."

"You got this Air boy! Use those ninja reflexes! Bring it home!" Davian almost got giddy with excitement when Force of Nature started their ultimate combo. No words came to mind, just an excited, "Woo yeah!" as the combo worked its magic and almost all at once the BeetleFrogs went down.

"Come on Julienne, you need to get into this!" Angelique yelled, yanking Julienne out of her seat. Julienne stopped herself from slamming into the bar as she did so. "Why don't you look excited?"

"Well..." Admittedly, Julienne wasn't too interested in the match because she didn't see a point in it. All they were doing is street fighting in a organized fashion - I guess some people find that interesting, but she wasn't satisfied. "I just don't really find it interesting. Sorry."

"Ugh, you're so annoying." Angelique laughed, punching Julienne in the arm. "Try to have fun for once." Before Julienne could respond back to her, Angelique went back to screaming at the game.

"At least I don't yell at people..." Julienne muttered angrily.

He figured he better not get involved too much, but Davian couldn't help noticing the two girls having a bit of a disagreement again. "Don't worry Julienne, she's just excited. People can be that way at these things, especially benders like us." He stood up to yell at the arena again. "Come on Dominic, get back up! Balance man!"

Julienne sighed as Davian attempted to reason with her. She didn't wanna talk bad about Angelique, because they were friends, but... "Well, it's not a big deal."

"Well you should be into this! I had to pay full price for your ticket, y'know!" Angelique laughed, slapping Julienne on the back. "You oughta enjoy this!"

Davian didn't take his eyes off of the match, but Angelique was getting a bit agressive. "Hey, give her a break. She can't help it if she's not into it - not all girls like violence y'know." He didn't mean it to come out derisive as he was just teasing, but he was a bit used to his bored tone of voice and emotion didn't shine through too well unless he was angry.

"Eh, she's fine! We all need to see a good beating every now and then!" Angelique was trying to be optimistic, Julienne could tell, but it was clear that she was getting annoyed again. "Come on, can you at least pretend to be happy? You're killing my mood."

Julienne waved her hands in the air melodramatically. "Wee, so much fun. Watching people get hurt."

Angelique scoffed, crossing her arms. "Alright look, I'm not gonna listen to you be a grumpy pants in the middle of the match. We're supposed to be having fun and you're totally killing this for me. Please, can you scoot down a seat and have your pity party over there?"

"Hey! I'm not going anywhere! I told you I was gonna stay the whole time. You're just making a big deal out of nothing." Julienne countered, offended that Angelique was being so rude.

"You're here because of me." Angelique snapped, getting fiesty again. "If you're gonna make a scene, you should just leave."

"No." Julienne stated firmly. "I'm staying."

"... Well fine." Angelique grabbed her bag from the seat. "Then I'm leaving."

"Whoa whoah, hold on a second! I think Force of Nature's got this in the bag, you don't wanna miss it!" Davian tried not to make it too obvious that he himself didn't really want her to leave. " I mean err... if you think about it, you'd never forgive yourself if you missed them becoming champions. Besides..." He looked down for a moment and tried to keep his voice from cracking. "You should cherish your friends while you can."

Angelique rolled her eyes. "Davian, it's cute that you want me to stay, really. But if Ms. Naysay wants to ruin the fun, consider it ruined." Angelique glared at Julienne. "I do cherish Julienne, I just don't cherish her stiffling attitude. Besides, it's not like she's gonna get kidnapped while I'm gone. She's a big girl."

Before anyone else could speak, Angelique stormed her way past the front row, pushing past all the cheering fans. Julienne sighed and leaned against the railing. "Great. She's mad, again."

Davian didn't really feel comfortable being the reassuring gentleman; he wasn't that guy anymore, but he couldn't bring himself to stay silent on the whole matter. "Yeah. she seems like she does that a bit. Don't worry though, she'll come around. After all, nobody even threw any punches. You two'll be alright."

"She's always mad at me for something..." Julienne groaned. "Maybe I'm just not a good friend. She did spend a lot of money to get me in here. Ugh..."

"Bad friend? Hey, you stopped her from getting thrown out of the place because she fought with some random jerk, She's only still here because of you. Besides, if that fight had happened, someone probably would've died." Davian smiled at her, thinking how lucky her and Angelique were to have each other. "I bet she'd be a lot worse off if she didn't know you. Hey, her loss; you may not enjoy the violence but maybe you can enjoy the pride of the players. Look, they're about to give them their title."

"Beginners luck, kids these days-" "Reg you're always the pessimist." Davian listened with surprising focus, besides the fact that he had to see them crown the winnder he always liked to hear the commentators' verbal sparring. A pause between their barbs was normal, although there was a marked difference neither of the commentators were all that young, but Davian's gaze darted towards the commentator's stand when he heard the mircrophone-magnified thump of the older man hitting the floor. He quickly took in that the box was filled with red smoke and silhouettes were retreating from sight.

And suddenly, the arena became filled with attackers, wearing very odd gloves and not looking too friendly. Pandemonium ensued as everyone began to flee, afraid of being captured or hurt. They all fled past Davian and Julienne, not caring what was gonna happen to them.

The arena had been attacked before, it was a good place for an ambush... and something definitely wasn't right. Davian had just enough time to stand up and yell "Everybody get down! We g-" Before a foot met his gut and the wind was knocked out of him for a moment.

Julienne yelped and jumped back as a random person appeared beside Davian and nailed him in the stomach with a kick. "O-Oh my god! Dude, get up, I - AAAH!" Someone grabbed her from behind, clenching tightly onto her arms. She struggled and kicked as she tried to get out of the stranger's grip. "L-Let me go! My friend's a firebender! S-She'll beat you up!"

"Shut up, you idiot." The guy commanded, causing Julienne to go silent with a wimper. "Your friend should be lucky she left, or we'd have to capture her. All units, be on the lookout for a female firebender!" The guy shouted to the others, who were busy chasing down people who were trying to escape. "Round up the civilians. We can't let the benders escape. If we don't find the Avatar, well... I don't wanna think about what's gonna happen when we tell the Boss. Keep the benders separate!"

Julienne had tears in her eyes - for the first time, she was actually afraid that she was gonna die. She looked at Davian, who was still slumped over from the attack. "D-Dude, please do something..."

"God, quit your whimpering." The guy threw Julienne down, causing her to smack against the seats and hit the ground with a groan. "Your boyfriend isn't gonna help you."

Breath whooshed back into Davian's lungs after he finished pushing himself up with one hand, but another one of the lackeys wasted no time putting another foot to his stomach and held him to the floor a moment longer. "Stay down, hero; you're not worth our time."

Davian gritted his teeth; it looked like he was gonna get his fight for the day after all. "So, it's benders you want, is it? Well then, let me -"

"Stop it you jerks!" Julienne pushed the guy away, kneeling down to Davian's side. "You're gonna hurt him if you keep doing that. If you're looking for benders, he isn't one of them!" She knew that it was a lie, because she could immediately tell from just looking at this guy that he was a bender. But he was basically the only person in the immediate area she was sure would protect her, even if the notion seemed extremely selfish. She wasn't gonna let him get killed. "Just leave us be, okay? We're not gonna move. Besides, my side is killing me thanks to you."

Julienn's intervention allowed Davian to clear his head and realize for a moment that he might not be able to take all of them on at once, and if he got captured, it'd be too hard for him to figure out what was going on. "Yeah, we were just here to enjoy the game. Can you blame a guy for wanting to keep everyone calm?"

The man who seemed to be the superior among the henchmen looked at both of them a moment longer before signalling the other two to release them. "I guess we've got more important things to worry about, you two. We have to find the Avatar before she can get out of Republic City; this is our chance. You kids keep your heads down and do as you're told and no further harm will come to you."

Julienne nodded, watching the three men walk away to help organize the people they captured. Once they were out of earshot, Julienne began to help Davian sit up, leaning him against the rim of the chair to avoid hurting him further. "You owe me." She commented, trying to discreetly wipe away the tears that lingered in her eyes to make it look like she wasn't scared. Honestly, she was terrified. "Okay... I don't know what to do. I'm really... well, scared. And I don't know if Angelique got out. What if they capture her? Oh god, I don't wanna know what happens if they capture her." Julienne sat down beside Davian. "Oh god, what are we gonna do? Please tell me you know what to do."

"Hey, no waterworks." Davian spoke softly, placing his hand on her shoulder. "And nope, I have no idea what to do, but I do know a couple of things: first, we have to actually do something. Sitting here and feeling sorry for ourselves isn't going to help anyone. Angelique definitely wanted some air earlier, so I'm sure she's out by now. Besides, I'm sure she wouldn't be that easy to catch, I -" He gasped and stood still for a moment. "They said the Avatar is in Republic City... I've met her before... hmm." He snapped when the lightbulb went on, not caring one bit how cliché it was. "It was that girl! The one at the Central Station! I knew something was familiar about her; I never forget a face! We've got to find her. If somebody wants to capture the Avatar, it can't be for a good reason."

"Dude, how are we gonna find her?" Julienne questioned. "We're stuck here, remember? If we move from this spot, we'll probably get attacked. I don't wanna risk either of our physical beings unless we have something more... concrete. I think... I honestly think we should just lay low and contemplate something first. These guys are dangerous - like, actually dangerous. We've lucked out enough to get to this point, so let's just think of something better. Besides, do you really wanna know what could possibly happen if we do find the Avatar and then these guys find us? It wouldn't be pretty."

"I'm not an idiot." Davian calmly stated. "I may be a bit too willing to fight, but I'm not gonna run off with some half-concocted plan and put our lives in danger. My life is the only one I'm willing to put in danger, and you were right, I do owe you, so step one is getting you out of here and back to Angelique. After you're safe... I'm going to find the Avatar, even if I have to chop every one of these thugs to pieces. My safety isn't worth a damn compared to her's."

Julienne swallowed, trying not to let the fact that this guy who probably only knew either of them by their first name was willing to let himself die over getting them to safety. "A-Are you... being serious? I wouldn't want you to risk yourself like that. I wouldn't live with that on my shoulders. You seem like a good person. I... I'll go with you. I'm savvy with words, so maybe I can talk us out of sticky situations. I... can't let you go alone."

Good lord, what was she doing? This is prime surivival situation, and here she's worried about a guy whose name she didn't even know. If anything, she should've sacrificed him to the two guys to get herself out of here already. And yet, she felt like she would never muster up the courage to do something so... stupid.

Davian closed his eyes for a moment and contemplated just what he should do. "The only place you're going is outside. I'm not going to put a non-combatant at risk. We're getting you back to Angelique and then you two can decide what you're going to do from there."

"Dude, that's not gonna happen, I -"

"No, that's exactly what's going to happen. I'm not watching anyone die - not today, of all days. I'm getting you to safety and that's final, and if you have a problem with it you can just navigate the path of carnage I leave behind me if i have to force my way through." He sliced his hand through the air as he interrupted her, leaving no room for more argument.

Julienne clenched her mouth shut, almost angrily, as she thought about what she could say. What would Angelique do? Angelique would argue, and fight, and find her own way out of here... but Julienne wasn't her. Julienne didn't have fire, or a weapon, or anything other than her wit. She was weak, too, mentally and physically. She had to face facts: she had no choice. "... Fine. I guess I'd just hold you back. I... we can find a way out."

"Good." Davian crouched lower into the shade of the stadium seats and carefully opened the leather pouch on his left hip, then pulled out one of the orbs of enigmatic metal. He held it with his right hand and pulled his left away from it, narrowing the gap between his fingers until they made a point, causing the orb to shape itself into several small daggers. He tucked two into specific places on his person and held one out to Julienne. "Here; if things get too crazy and I can't help you, do what you have to. These guys aren't wearing armor and they won't expect it."

Julienne hesitantly took the dagger, feeling the weight around. "R-Right... got it..." She hadn't ever even thought of having to kill any of the attackers here, and yet she knew deep down that she had no choice if she wanted out.

Oh god, please let Angelique be okay...

"Ugh, I can't believe her!"

Angelique groaned as she leaned against a tree that was just out of the reach of the lights connected to the top of the arena doorway, leaning against the side that was opposite of the light. She was still clearly upset about Julienne and how she acted, and had been complaining to no one for the past five minutes after she stepped out.

"I can't believe I dragged her to this thing and had to leave just because she was being so stubborn." She griped, diggining her nails lightly into the skin on her arms. "Why can't she just have fun for once? Why does she always have to be so... ugh!"

She flopped down, sitting against the tree, pulling up some grass to keep herself calm. "... I... really should go back... shouldn't I? I don't wanna leave her in there alone. She's got metalhead, but... Yeah. I should go back. She might get lost on her way out, and then I'd be responsible."

However, as Angelique stood up and peered around the tree, she immediately realized that her plan was never meant to be. From inside the arena came loud crashes and the screams of people inside - not soon after, a rush of people came flying out until two men wearing giant metal gloves with red eyes in the palm pulled the doors shut, trapping everyone inside and locking the door before chasing after some people. Angelique quickly jumped from her spot on the tree and landed in the bushes, narrowly avoiding being caught. The two men gave up on their pursuit as the civilians got away, griping as they walked back. "Any of those people coulda been the Avatar, and we let them all get away. Great."

"Hey, not the end of the world. Remember, we're at the arena because someone from inside spotted the Avatar. We'll just capture all the benders here and see if it's them." The other guy spoke. Angelique swallowed hard as she heard their words - guess it was a bad day to be a bender.

I have to get back inside... Julienne's in there... and god knows what they're gonna do to her... I hope she keeps her mouth shut and stays out of the way... or she might get... She stopped herself from thinking that thought. She'll be fine... for now... I have to get in.

She inaudbily sighed, contemplating what to do next. The question is... how?

__________________

at some point I must have liked that you look like a taco addict who's had one too many back alley liposuctions

Kalden and Ryan | THEY’ ON A BOAT~

Ryan glumly sat in his seat, mumbling angrily to himself. Angelique and her skinny friend were seated next to a tall, bulky guy who Ryan had never seen before. They were loudly arguing again

Suddenly he felt a pat on his shoulder. "Excuse me, sir? This is my seat..." a man timidly mumbled, and showed him a ticket.

Ryan sighed. He had taken a random seat, the closest he could find to Angelique. "Hey listen, can't you sit somewhere else? I'm a little busy right n-"

"Something isn't just your business anymore when it happens in the public forum, especially if it's disrupting other people's enjoyment. Besides, I don't scare people; either I'm civil or I'm not, and you'd know if I wasn't being civil. Just do everyone a favor and keep it down don't you know there are people here who had to save up for months to be here?"

Ryan turned his head to face Angelique and the stranger. Angelique was now standing up, looking angrier than usual, glaring at the stranger who had just spoke."I've had enough with idiot guys like you today, and I'm at the end of my wits with people like you. So shut up, sit down, and -"

Angelique's friend tried to sit her back down. "Just sit down. There's no need to make a big scene." To which Angelique responded with ""There's a need. I've dealt with Bird Freak and Nolan today, and frankly Metalhead here is the straw that's breaking the camel's back."

Ryan grinned. She remembered him!

His smile immediately turned to an expression of shock. The stranger had just stood up, apparently asking for a fight."Oh yeah? That's a funny coincidence; it was just this morning that I was thinking it was too long since I had a good fight."

Okay seriously, can't anyone in this damn city just stick to their own bloody business?

Ryan angrily stood up, ready to leap at the stranger if he even dared to touch a single hair on his lady. Suddenly, Angelique was holding the guy by the collar, raising her fist to his face in a threatening manner. Obvioulsy a fight was gonna go down. After a few moments of yelling and Ryan asking himself if he should just take down the guy, the skinny girl managed to calm Angelique down.

The guy's lucky. I mean, really lucky.

Then, out of nowhere, Angelique unleashed her blazing fury at the stranger, almost hitting him before her friend intervened by putting herself between the two. Ryan tried to get into the fight, but as he tried to jump to the next row of seats a man next to him held him back. "Calm down, son, don't get into anything you don't want to be in."

"What are you talking about, you-" Ryan answered back angrily, before thinking for a second. He had been in a fight already with that Nolan dude, and causing trouble twice wasn't gonna help. Reluctantly, he sat back down, still enraged at the dude who had the guts to threaten his lady. Luckily for both the two calmed down, and Ryan learned the stranger's name.

Davian, huh? It's gonna sound like Dive-ian when I whoop him to the bottom of the Pacific.

Ryan slouched in his seat, cursing Davian and his clothes and his house and his house's janitors.

ZZZzzzzzzzz....

Ryan slumped to the side, drooling in his sleep, and was pushed away by an angry woman. This caused him to fall off his seat, onto the stairs near him.

"Mmh-wha? Ow... Falco, you son of a..." Ryan muttered as he slowly awoke from his sleep. He looked around him, and suddenly remembered why he was here, and what had happened. He had fallen asleep before the match had even started, since he had stayed up the whole night before in an intense darts contest with his ship's crew.

He quickly stood back up and sat again on his seat, and looked at the arena. The match was almost over with the final round happening right now. He watched, just in time for him to witness the Force of Nature's devastating combo attack.

Oh hey, you gotta admit, those guys are pretty ice.

He silently laughed at his own joke. Suddenly, he saw her again. His charming, beautiful lady. Angelique. She looked quite angry (Ah, she looks even more glamorous when she's angry) and was marching off away from the stadium, muttering to herself.

He chuckled. Seems like someone gave her the cold shoulder. Well, someone's gotta raise her spirits, and lucky for her I'm-

"Reg you're always the pessimist. - thud -" The whole crowd went silent, ans so did Ryan. Suddenly, the cries of joy which came from the crowd turned to cries of horror, as people quickly tried to escape the arena. A whole bunch of black-gloved individuals has popped out of nowhere and were starting to round people up, attacking complete strangers. Confused, Ryan tried to follow the crowd to the exit when he heard one of the individuals yell:

"Get all the benders! One of them has to be the avatar!"

Ryan froze. He definitely looked like a bender, and -

"Oof!"

Ryan was knocked onto the ground as one of the henchmen kicked him in the stomach. "I've got one confirmed waterbender!" he yelled to his colleagues. Not wasting any time, Ryan jumped back up, and unscrewed the cap off his bottle. A dozen small orbs of water shot out, levitating around him. The moon was only half-full. It wasn't going to be easy.

"If you're looking for a waterbender, you got one, lads." he said, waving an arm in the henchman's direction. Immediately six of the water orbs turned to spike-shaped darts, and shot at him.

"That's how we do it back in the homeland, bi-"

He was interrupted by a particularly bulky henchman charging into him with his shoudler. Ryan was hit in the ribs, and sent over the rail and tumbling head-first into the arena's water pit.

Kalden ducked underneath the leg of one of the black-clad goons who had made it onto the middle platform during all of the commotion, along with about nine of his friends, via taut wires, that had somehow been shot straight into the side of the arena, which they had then crossed.

He barely had time to look around as three of the henchmen Kalden failed to recognize continued barraging him with attacks, which kept him on the defensive, leaping over one of them, ducking under another's attack and so on. Despite the gravity of the situation, Kalden was impressed with how agile and how... professional their fighting seemed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Jian and Dominic had disappeared, along with two of the Beetlefrogs, one of them having been downed by the thugs and was now being carried away. He grit his teeth in worry of his friends, but he knew that they could handle themselves, and that he didn't exactly have time to worry about others than himself at this point in time.

Ironic, then, that he managed to fight his way into the middle of the arena, which gave him a view of a young guy being knocked off of the platform by another of the shadowy thugs and into the water below, which spurred him to move his arms close to his body before thrusting them outwards, sending two of his attackers tumbling along the arena, which left him with enough momentum to leap over the last one and deliver a swift kick to the back of his head.

His attackers dealt with, Kalden grabbed onto the ledge of the arena and swung himself down towards the platform on top of the water, below the actual arena platform, using a small gust of air to slow his fall. He turned, spotting the guy in the water coming up for air as he knelt down and reached out for him.

"Hey! Grab o-"

The next thing that escaped Kalden was a loud, painful yelp, as one of the thugs had made his way onto the same platform, behind Kalden and, rather silently I might add, snuck up on him, and grabbed the back of his neck with the weirdly-shaped gauntlet, which then sent a jolt of electricity through his body, causing him to slump over. The masked man then swiftly leaned down and touched the water with the gauntlet, giving Ryan a brief look through the yellow-tinted goggles before electrocuting the water... and him.

Ryan coughed and sputtered water as he suddenly woke up from what seemed like a terrible nightmare. There was a crowd of people fleeing, a bunch of shady dudes attacking random people, an angry woman pushing him... Suddenly Ryan gasped, recalling how he had fallen from the seating area into the water, a blurred vision of a guy trying to help him, and another dude with yellow sunglasses looking at him, then darkness.

Ryan coughed some more before he violently shook his head and looked around, trying to assess the situation. They were in a small, dimly-lighted room, with the walls apparently made of wooden planks. The floor was covered with dust and Ryan noticed a rat scuttering past him.

He tried to stand up. Immediately he fell back down onto his face, groaning. He was obviously chained to something. He glanced at his foot. It was chained to a heavy metal safe. He tried to push it, but it wouldn't budge.

Well, that's just my luck. Where in the 7 oceans am I? And who are those creeps who brought me here?

Just then, a groan came from Ryan's left and as he turned his head to look, he saw Kalden, sitting with his back up against a rather sturdy-looking table, his arms pulled behind one of the legs with his hands being cuffed together. The airbender slowly shook his head as he came to, blinking his eyes open.

"Ugh... ow, my head... feels like that time I fell off of mom's sky bison..."

He tugged on his arms, trying to raise his hands to rub his head, at which point he gained a look of confusion on his face. He turned his head, looking around himself before the realization clearly hit him of what had happened not long ago. He also seemed to notice Ryan at that point, blinking in surprise at seeing someone else. He gave a wry little smile at the peculiarly dressed guy whom, from the first glance at least, had the look of a waterbender about him.

"So, what're you in for?"

Ryan stopped himself from answering with "for being awesome". Instead, he smiled back at the stranger. "Same thing as you, I guess. Being a waterbender. Buuut you don't look so - wait a minute. Are you- ?"

"An airbender? Kalden, from The Force of Nature? Pretty cool? Yep, yep, and I suppose so." Kalden replied with another cheeky little smile, glancing behind him at the cuffs for a moment. "... Don't suppose you have any ideas?"

Ryan was liking this guy's attitude. "Well, I bet my entire crew it's those shady guys that took us here. Apart from that, I can't remember anything." Ryan tugged again at the chain. "Those things look rusty. My cutlass could cut through any-" he placed his hand where his beloved weapon was, only to find that it was gone. So was the water bottle. "Oh, blast the Kraken! Those guys took my cutlass!" he exclaimed angrily, looking around the room. "You can take a man's home, his ship - hell, even his bird, but you don't steal a pirate's blade! That's just dishonourable!"

Ryan thought about what he has just said. Well, pirates aren't that honourable to start off with, so...

Surprise took over Kalden's expression as this other guy let it slip that he was a pirate. Kalden didn't exactly mind, considering he wasn't trying to threaten him to give up his money right now. He was more curious about this guy and how he ended up in the same place as him.

"Well, in either case... we need to think of a way out of here. And as far as I can tell... there isn't anything nearby we can use to escape."

He glanced behind him at the heavy, sturdy table, furrowing his brows a little.

"And that thing's way too heavy for me to lift without any momentum. Pl- hey... you hear that?"

Kalden's eyes narrowed as he leaned a little forwards, as if listening really intently, and sure enough, they heard two voices coming from what they just now identified as a door in the wooden wall.

"... hope the others hurry up. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to."

"Relax, we just need the two others to get down here and we'll take off. The others'll take care of the Avatar, we just need to worry about the airbender."

"What about the other guy? What if he's the Avatar...? What if he breaks out?"

The other guy sighed and they could clearly hear a low 'thump', followed by the first guy going "Ow!". "Because, idiot, we have the Avatar's name, age and -gender-. And if you ask me, the guy in there doesn't look like a girl."

Kalden turned his head to look over at Ryan again, his eyes wide. The Avatar was here? And -that- was why they attacked? Although it sounded like they were here partially for 'her', and partially here for Kalden as well.

"The Avatar? Hey, isn't that the unique kind of bender than bend all four elements? Well damn, I thought that was a legend! Those guys couldn't possibly be looking for him, - or her, in that case - right?"

Ryan was getting unsually worried right now. It wasn't common for him to get anxious like that, yet as he heard the two men speaking, a feeling of dread passed over him. He had been in many situations like this, some even thougher than the current one, but there was something about the men who had taken them here. They seemed all too familiar. As if he had heard of them before but never actually seen them.

Suddenly it hit him. "Er, Kalden? Those chumps on the other side are equalists, right?"

Kalden answered with a "Yeah, probably." Ryan looked at the ceiling for a while.

"So technically, they're looking for the avatar..." Ryan muttred. He turned to Kalden. "So what if we convince those two dimwits that one of us is the avatar? They don't sound too smart to begin with. Then they'd free us, and we wipe 'em out."

Kalden glanced at the door, furrowing his brows a little, lowering his voice so that the two outside wouldn't hear them. "... I don't know. Why would they let us go? Besides, you heard them, they know the Avatar's a girl. Although... hmm."

He looked from Ryan, over to the door again, peering behind him and shuffling around a little, so that he was facing the door before taking in a breath of air. "Hey! Dumb and dumber!"

A moment passed before the door opened and the two masked, black-clad guys stepped partially into the room, looking over at Kalden. "... What?" Kalden then proceeded to look over to Ryan, giving him a 'Make something up!' look.

"Yeah for sh** it isn't!" Ryan loudly interrupted him. "Fight me right now, big man, ye and yer scallywaggin' friend back there! A Cutlass isn't gonna go down like this!" he continued, standing up, and finished it off by rudely spitting in the henchman's face (the spit had been reinforced by waterbending, so it was slightly painful).

The guy who got hit by the spit raised his hands to his eyes, swearing and stumbling a little backwards, bumping into his friend who went "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing, brat?", turning around to glare down at Ryan. Kalden, however, flashed a toothy grin as he bent his knees all the way up to his chest, having lowered himself down to almost lie against the floor, before thrusting his legs forwards, sending a strong blast of air into the back of one of the thugs, sending him flying into his friend, and the both of them crashed against the wall of the cabin and proceeded to fall onto the floor, unconcious.

Kalden looked over at the two before glancing to Ryan while shuffling around to sit up again, grinning toothily. "Dumb and dumber, huh?"

Ryan grinned. He had particularly enjoyed spitting in the guy's face. "They make a nice pair, in my opinion."

He tried to walk towards the two unconcious men, and again fell onto his face, cursing the chain and this bloody ship and it's crew and its janitors. He slowly rose again, this time paying attention to the chain to which he was bound. He bent over, and rummaged through Dumb's and Dumber's Pockets. After a few moments of searching, he found the keys, and proceeded to free himself and Kalden.

Xiu grimaced as she tried futily to watch Jian the firebender as he played, but she was unable to focus due to the questions nagging at the back of her head about the mysterious man who had decided to call himself "Shun Feng Er". She was also slightly bothered by the fact that he had chastised her for lying to him while he did the exact same thing. Didn't that mean he was insulting her intelligence? Regardless, that was a lesser matter. Try as she might, though, she could figure out nothing about Shun no matter how much she looked at him. It was jarring, as well as a first for her. Now he was talking to her to add on to her mounting distractions.

What exactly was she supposed to be seeing? She scanned the arena but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Was it something that was beyond her ability to notice or were her distractions just that troubling? It seemed that Shun noticed this and sighed. "Come on, I expected more from you. The stands, look at the audience. Do I have to outright say it?" Xiu's brow furrowed in dislike for the man. The audience... She looked but still didn't see anything. She had to look closer, then. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a monocular and peered through it at the audience. Nope, still nothing. People screaming, people jumping in their seats, people with snacks, and even some people who looked like they weren't quite having fun. None of this was-

"Look for a pattern. I'm dissapointed, Avatar." Shun's tone made it clear that he was bored, with sighs as well as if it wasn't obvious enough.

This was the first time he had outright stated that he knew her identity, but right now she was too focused on trying to see whatever it was she was looking for to worry about him. Pattern... There! She noticed that of the people who didn't seem to be enjoying themselves, there were ones with similar snack buckets or other containers spaced around the arena in a manner that couldn't be coincidence. A certain piece of history came to mind. Oh, no.

"Yes, she finally gets it! Good job, it only took you what, three hints?" He clapped slowly and mockingly. How could he just sit here knowing that there was going to be an attack on the arena? Xiu stood up and faced him, ready to question him when he held up a hand signaling for her to be silent. "You probably don't want to waste time asking me questions considering that there's only one person here who is important enough to warrant an attack on the arena and that person might want to get out before they strike. Do you understand or do you need more hints?" Xiu groaned, annoyed at the fact that he was right again as well as the way he could insult her with such a kind smile.

She pondered for a moment at what she could say before she left, not wanting to leave without a single answer, but she couldn't think of a question that could get him to answer anything properly. Instead, she asked him, "Why warn me about this? And if you knew about them why aren't you leaving too?"

"If you're caught, the game will end. And don't worry about me, they'll let me go soon enough. Oh, and for the record this isn't my doing; much too crude."

Xiu couldn't afford to waste more time talking so she dashed out the door behind them and continued until she reached the exit. So he thinks of this as a game? That part was honestly disturbing to her, but at least it meant she would be safe for now. She kept running even once she was outside before she stopped to figure out where she would go, but loud noises from behind her interrupted her thoughts. Screams filled the air from inside the arena as the unknown enemies struck. They would probably make sure to prevent outside support from getting to those inside which meant they would be coming out to seal the doors and get whoever they could that was running out of the arena back inside. Xiu didn't want to be seen so she dove into a nearby bush to hide. She was surprised when she bumped into something else in the bush, a person who had apparently had the same idea as her. "Ah, sorry!" she whispered to the figure in apology, her "Ling" persona returning. A longer look revealed that this person was not as unknown as she thought.

"Ling?" Angelique questioned as the girl jumped through the bush and crashed into her. "What are you doing here- oh nevermind. We've got issues, obviously." Angelique peered through the shrubbery, trying to see if anyone was nearby enough to hear them. "I... don't really know what's going on, but for some reason, these people are searching for the Avatar. It makes me glad I didn't get picked to be it at that stupid training camp I went to when I was younger. Either way, I need to get back in."

It was all too obvious that Angelique planned on getting in because someone, most likely Julienne, had been trapped in there. Xiu thought for a moment, debating in her mind whether or not she should run. Normally that's exactly what she did, but this case was different. There was a group of organized individuals pursuing her for an unknown reason, but likely one that she wouldn't want to support. Their organization during the attack suggests that they have a specific goal with loyal followers, similarly to the equalist. Those two factors implied that whoever this was, they wouldn't stop until they had her. Running didn't seem to be an option here since they would probably catch her eventually, no matter what. Then there was the issue of Shun. If his reason for helping her into the arena was to further his "game", then any succesful attempts at escape where nobody should be able to find her would be thwarted by him.

Debate over, Xiu would have to fight. In that case, the first step would be to gather allies. There was no way she would be able to handle this on her own. Her eyes went to the girl beside her, a seemingly athletic girl with a motivation to go against these strangers. However, Xiu feared Angelique would be too hot headed on her own. She needed more allies. It occured to her that there was another ally neaby. It would mean revealing her secret, and considering that this girl had been at the training camp she would have to reveal her name as well, but she needed someone to help her take this first step. Trust (or at least the illusion of it) was important in maintaining an orderly team. She felt like smiling at this whole situation. The one time she goes to a pro bending match where she happens to see a boy from the camp she ends up running into a girl from the camp on the way there who (hopefully) becomes her first ally in what seems like her first actual business as the Avatar. Wasn't it enough that she became the Avatar the moment she screamed she didn't want to and that the organization her grandfather was a part of that had tried to stop her in a past life was back for her? It seemed like the universe was really enjoying messing with her. At this point she wouldn't have been surprised if the metalbender from earlier and Julienne were both from the camp as well.

Finally having decided on a course of action, Xiu turned to Angelique and said, "We should go, it's not safe here. Come with me and I'll show you something that can help us." Her tone became slightly more serious, but it wasn't a complete deviation from her persona. After all, her true self didn't seem near as likeable as Ling did.

"Whoa sister, hold up." Angelique held up a hand to stop her. "I'm not going anywhere without Julienne. We're going in. If you're not gonna help me, I might as well do it myself. I don't know how you treat your friends, but I don't leave mine in some kind of psycho hostage situation where they can die."

"Angelique, please!" Xiu pleaded, her voice showing desperation. "There are dozens of them and one of you, you can't win. Julienne is safer staying inside where there are hundreds more in her situation than she is trying to escape where you will both be in danger. As long as she isn't the Avatar, you don't need to worry." She took a deep breath, pretending to regain her calm. "I want to help them just as much as you do, but we have to be smart about this. That's why I need you to come with me. We do this first, then we save Julienne and everyone else together. Please?" At the last word she stared into Angelique's eyes and clasped her hands together.

"..." Angelique was definitely torn. She barely knew this Ling girl, but she seemed really in need of her help. Was Julienne really safe in there? Could she handle herself? Well, she had Metalhead, but it's no guarantee that he was helping her. They didn't even know his name, although he seemed to know theirs'. But... was Ling actually trying to help her? Maybe she was just playing dumb and was secretly one of those freaks that started this whole situation. But... yeah, Angelique wasn't the avatar, so there's no real reason for her to be captured. "... Fine... I'll trust you for now."

Xiu smiled and said, "You won't regret it!" before walking off, encouraging Angelique to follow her slowly. Running would draw more attention than walking, not to mention the fact that if she were to be chased by one of those guys there would be no way for her to outrun them without giving her identity away. Fortunately, the pair didn't seem to draw any attention thanks to the chaos. She walked back into the city until she found herself in an alleyway.

Alright, this place is good," she muttered with an unfading smile before looking up and speaking to the sky loudly. "You saw all that, right?" There was silence for several moments before she saw a figure fall in front of her without a sound upon hitting the ground. "Hi Thokmay!"

Angelique jumped slightly as the man landed in front of the two, causing her to flare her hands up in instinctual defense. "Wait a minute, who's this guy supposed to be? He isn't working with those freaks, is he?"

Thokmay was fairly short (yet still slightly taller than Xiu) and of a similar physique to Angelique's, but what drew the most attention was the brown robe he wore concealing an even more attention-drawing white lotus uniform. "How long?" he said quietly in his deep, monotone voice. He definitely didn't waste words.

"From the beginning," She piped proudly before becoming serious. "I'll need you to take of your robe, please." He seemed apprehensive about it, but Xiu added "We need her help, and if she's going to help us then she needs to know."

"Uh... know what, exactly?" Angelique was apprehensive about whoever this guy was and what exactly Ling was revealing to her. Hell, it sounded like she was in some kind of cult from the way they were talking. Did those still exist?

"I want you to see this, Angelique," Xiu said softly. "Then I'll explain everything." Thokmay looked at her for a moment before nodding and silently removing the robe to reveal the uniform underneath. Xiu let it sink in for a moment before turning to Angelique and bowing low while sadly saying "I'm sorry, but this is all my fault." She lifted her head and put on a shaky smile, her eyes looking like they were holding back tears (an effect done with waterbending). "Hi, my name is Xiu Lim and I'm the Avatar. It's nice to see you again."

"... So... the people that are keeping Julienne trapped inside that building are trying to find you? And this entire invasion is only happening because they want you?" Angelique asked, sounding somewhat bitter. And she kind of was. This random girl she barely knew put her friend in serious dangerous, lied about who she was, yet still asked her for help knowing all of that. Not exactly reason to give assistance. "And you want me to help you?"

She didn't hold the fake tears any longer, nor did she maintain the wavering smile. "I'm sorry for all of it. I tried hard to hide it from people like them and that's why I had to lie to you but somehow they found out I was here anyway. I didn't mean for all those people to get hurt." Her expression slowly changed into a serious one. "You know, I didn't ask to be the Avatar. But the reality is that I am and there's nothing I can do to change that, so I have to do my best to fulfill my Avatar duty. That means working to stop the people in that arena. I can't do this alone, though, so I need as many people as I can get to help me. I won't make anyone do anything they don't want to so if you want to leave, then I'm sorry and I wish you luck. But my hope is that you'll stay and join me in our common goal of rescuing the people in that arena, including Julienne." Xiu straightened her posture and held out a hand for a handshake. "Will you let us help you, Angelique?" Xiu hoped that a display of resolve would help sway this girl's mind, but there was no guarantee. Thokmay wouldn't be enough on his own, so if Angelique refused to help her then she would just have to find someone else.

Angelique thought about this request, trying not to take too long since Julienne could get herself into trouble at any moment - and she knew Julienne would get herself into trouble. "... Ugh. This is... ugh. I want to help you, but I really can't trust you. It doesn't help that we literally just met this afternoon. You could just be trying to decieve me and trying to get me captured too. Mutemay or whatever his name is could be doing the same thing. How am I supposed to know if you're being honest if you haven't been so far? For an Avatar, you're very dishonest." She crossed her arms. "Not very Avatar-y if you ask me."

Xiu pulled her arm back slowly and reached inside her purse from which she pulled a trio of small metal balls which she proceeded to levitate on one hand. She used the other to make a small twister in the corner of the alley that spun some miscellaneous pieces of garbage. "Can you believe me now?"

Well, that wasn't very disputable. "... okay, so I guess your story checks out. What about this guy? How do I know he's not tricking us? He could easily be fooling both of us."

Honestly, she was surprised that Angelique didn't take the white lotus sentry in front of her as truth enough of her identity, but she could be suspicious enough as to believe that the uniform was also a fake. However, it was just as likely that she simply didn't know who the white lotus were, which, while a little disappointing, made sense. The current generation wasn't exactly the most well versed in history. "Thokmay is a white lotus sentry sent here to watch over me. You can trust him more than you can trust me." She looked down sadly as she said that. "But I promise not to lie to you any more." The sentry behind her nodded in affirmation before bowing to Angelique.

Angelique paused for a moment, and then sighed. "Fine, whatever. I guess I can't go in there and raise hell by myself. They'll capture me in, like, five minutes." She pulled her hairband from her head and dropped it into her bag before drawing her hair back into a ponytail, speaking as she did so. "So, Ms. Avatar and her mute assistant, what exactly do you have planned? How do you expect us to get inside without getting captured?"

Xiu gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Angelique." It looked like she was successful in recruiting Angelique, a small start for her plans but a start nonetheless. She pondered for a moment before saying, "Thokmay is an expert in stealth. I'm going to ask him to go in and see if we can get an idea of how those guys are set up before I make an actual plan, but for now I've got a basic idea of what needs to be done. I need a team before we can do anything about the arena. We can't waste time looking for elite specialists and the like so anyone willing to help will do. Tell me if you know anyone like that, okay? I'll place them in the plan based on their abilities."

"Well, there was a guy in the arena I was sitting next to. I'm pretty sure he was a metalbender. But I'm not sure if he got out or not. There's also this really annoying guy who flirted with me today that was a Waterbender. I don't know where he went, though. Is that good enough?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. I'll see if I can think of anyone else. Can you describe them?"

"Eh, well, one's really annoying and has a really weird brown haircut, and he wears a robe or shrawl or something and flirts a lot and sounds kind of like a pirate. He also has some kind of sword. The metalbender has a plain haircut and looks like he's wearing some kind of really light armor or whatever, and he's kinda cute. That's all I know."

"Thanks." Xiu said before she turned to Thokmay and nodded, signaling to him that he could start with the plan and keep a lookout for the two people Angelique mentioned. "Remember, get out if anything at all goes wrong!" she called out to him as he left. She then turned back to Angelique and continued discussing the plan. "What would you say that you're good at, Angelique? I need to know so I can figure out where it would be best to place you in the plan."

"Er... well, I firebend." Angelique held up her hand, which immediately was covered in flames. "And people say I'm acrobatic. I usually combine them when I fight. Also, I can throw cards at people." The description really didn't do her fighting justice, but she hadn't exactly thought about how she would explain it to people. Usually people who witnessed it were on the recieving end - a place you don't want to be.

"A firebender?" Xiu had figured that she was probably a firebender, but personality and presumed fighting style isn't near enough to confirm anything. Now it was confirmed and it made this even better. This seemed to imply that she would be better fighting one-on-one than against a crowd, so she would have to take that into account. "Well, it's a little embarrassing but...I can't exactly firebend. I've mastered the forms and researched the styles but I can't even light a candle with it. When we're done with this, would you mind helping me out?"

"Honey, I don't know how to Firebend either." Angelique laughed, waving her hand to put the flame out. "The kind of firebending I use isn't the kind you should learn. You have to be nimble and willing to use some physical contact for what I do. And let's face it: in clothes like your's, you can't exactly do a roundhouse."

"I see..." While that was a little disappointing, Xiu figured that she'd still be able to observe her bending and maybe it would help her figure out what she was missing. "Let's go back to the arena. While Thokmay is scouting the inside, we can check the outside. We've gotta cover all the fronts." With that, she walked out of the alley and made her way to the bayside a distance from the arena. "Have you been underwater before?" She planned to use the bay as cover since the attackers would be searching the perimeter.

Angelique followed, not really feeling in the mood to speak as she attempted to formulate an idea from everything that had happened. Okay, so this girl is the Avatar... wow, what a day. I went from watching a match to working with the avatar to save my friend from equalists, if that's what they're called. So much in one day. All the ideas she had crammed in her head were really weighing her down - and on top of it all, she noticed that she had a rather stinging hunger. "I'm starving, ugh." What she wouldn't give to have some of that delicious chicken that Julienne was eating. Oh hey, I still have that dumpling.

Ready to devour her cheesy treat, Angelique unhooked the top of her bag and opened it - which allowed a blue bird to hastily shoot out of it before falling right onto the ground, causing Angelique to scream. "Oh my god, what the hell is that thing?!"

Much to her surprise, however, Angelique immediately noticed that the bird was oddly familiar... in fact, it was the same bird that had attacked her earlier when she encountered Bird Freak. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Oh my god, when I find that idiot, I'm going to wring his stupid little neck!" She growled, walking over to the fallen bird. Immediately, she noticed that the bird resembled more of a blob, and was bird-groaning slightly.

Looking back in the bag, she confirmed the suspicion she had that would explain this situation: it had eaten both of the dumplings.

"GRAH! YOU STUPID RAT!" Angelique grabbed the bird by it's neck, causing it to squawk and squeal as she choked it. "How dare you eat my food! Didn't that idiot master of your's ever warn you about eating a woman's food?! I'm gonna pluck every feather off your idiot body when I get through with you!"

"Don't kill it!" Xiu shouted at Angelique in desperation. A bird like this wasn't something that was seen in Republic City very often, especially a wild one. If they had a tamed bird at their disposal, that was a valuable asset. She couldn't just let Angelique hurt it, or even scare it away. They needed all the help they could get, and that included non-human help. "You said 'idiot master', right? Is this pirate boy's pet? If so, hurting it would make it harder to get him to join us. We need to get it to like us. And besides, it's actually pretty cute!"

Angelique paused in the midst of her bird-choking, her hands still crushing Falco's neck. "... Ugh, why are you so smart?" She let go of the bird's windpipe and let it fly up before crashing down into Xiu's hands, panting heavily and desperately. "Fine, we'll use the stupid thing. But when this is over, I'm going to strangle both of them. I am not dealing with these two for the rest of my life."

Xiu held the bird defensively away from Angelique at the mention of strangling. "Don't worry, little birdie. I won't let that happen to you." She stroked the bird's head as she talked softly to it while it cawed lightly. "See, he's not a bad bird," she told Angelique, "but back to business." She turned to the water in front of her and held out an arm, moving it in circular motions to make a place for her and Angelique to stand. "Can you put the bird back in your bag? I sort of need my other one for airbending."

Angelique, looking rather grumpy, agreed nonetheless and held the bird in her palm without choking it, casting a look of disgust as she did so. "Please hurry. I hate touching birds. They're always so disgusting."

Her second hand free, Xiu began to push air into the gap to maintain a supply for when she closed it. "Let's go," she said before stepping into the bubble.

Angelique paused, feeling wary about this. Wasn't that the exact move Bird Freak had used on her? She remembered that the bubbles popped rather easily with some simple firebending. "Uh... we're not gonna fly in that thing, are we? Because bubbles pop... and I don't wanna be 20 feet in the air if it does."

"No, silly. We're going underwater so we can be under the equalist look-alikes' radar. We'll come up at certain points to check the perimeter of the arena. You can swim, right?"

Angelique was silent, dead silent. "... That's almost as bad as flying. I... why do we need to do this again? I'm sure if we just sneak through the streets and keep low they won't find us. This... seems really risky. We'd get crushed by the water pressure."

"We can't form a plan without information so we're going to gather some. If we stay close to the arena's edge, then we'll be high enough to keep the water pressure from crushing us. Besides, it doesn't get deep enough to crush us anywhere near this close to the shore, so we'd be safe a good distance from the arena anyway." Xiu paused for a moment before asking, "Do you want to wait here? Remember, I said I wouldn't make you do anything you don't want to."

Angelique gulped. It seemed rude to just let Xiu do this all alone, but wow that bubble looked very flimsy. "Uh... yeah. I can search for stuff up here and walk in the same direction as you. I'm pretty, eh, sneaky. And I can defend myself. So don't worry about it. But, uh..." She threw Falco into the bubble, the bird landed against the bottom. It squawked in protest. "Take the thing with you. I don't want him."

Xiu nodded in agreement and began to close the bubble. "Remember, run if anything at all goes wrong. I need you to stay safe, so don't try anything risky. Okay?" Once the bubble was sealed, she began to walk deeper underwater until she was completely out of sight.

Angelique sighed in relief. "God, I can't believe she tried to get me into that thing. She must be crazy... a crazy Avatar; that's reassuring."

When Angelique turned around, however, she was wishing she had gone. Farther down the street, she noticed some people running... but they weren't running away from something, they were running towards her. As the drew closer, she noticed that they weren't just people - they looked like the people at the arena, with the metal gloves. "Great. I haven't even taken one step and I'm already getting attacked."

She clenched her fists, covering them with flames. "Alright, let's do this then!"

Davian Krotesse & Julienne

Julienne peered over the top of the seats, noting how many guards were standing nearby that would notice that both of them left. The rest were on opposite sides of the stadium or too far away to notice anything. She sat back down, looking over at Davian. "There's only three. If you can knock them out, we should be able to get to the exits. We have to be really quiet about it though. Just hit them in the head with something and let's go."

The plan itself was crazy, but it had to work if she was going to get out of here. "Think you can manage that?"

Davian smirked at Julienne. "Manage it? Oh, I think I'll find the strength to handle it." He undid the drawstring on his left hip pouch and pulled out the remaining Omni-Orb, then pulled both of his hands away from it and each other in smooth motions until it became a small baton. "Stay close enough to react if something goes wrong, but far enough that they won't hear you or hit you if I screw up okay?" Julienne nodded in response.

He only waited long enough for her to nod before creeping forward, he chose the guard further to the left for a smooth start. He straightened his back just enough to reach above the man's head before bringing the baton down right on the back of his skull, there was only a dull thud before he slumped to the floor. Good thing these guys were trying ot blend in, if he was wearing a helment of any kind that would've been loud. After factoring in the possibility that the remaining guards might have heard the noise or actually seen it, Davian acted fast for the second step. He made a ninety-degree turn and sprinted at the other two. Once he was closer, he jumped and kicked the further one in the face, rebounding off of him to get in another little jump and bring the baton down on the last one's nose.

Julienne jumped up from where she was hiding and swiftly ran over to him. "Wow, impressive. If you had fought Angelique, it certainly would've been interesting. Let's move." She dropped back down and began to crawl her way through the stands, keeping her head below the tops of the seats in front of her.

Davian wasted no time getting down to the floor and following Julienne...for the most part he managed to avoid enjoying the view. "Let me know as soon as you see something, the sight lines are a bit narrow back here.

Julienne scowled. "My butt isn't that big, okay? I know I've been putting on weight. Sheesh... guys are so insensitive some times." She continued to crawl forward, her elbows starting to hurt.

Holding in the chuckles fighting for dominance of his body, Davian continued on silently behind Julienne. Eventually, they made it to the end of that row, which dropped off down to the floor that led to the exit. Two guards were standing by the door, facing forward and actually doing their job. "Okay... there's two guards. They're both facing forward, so you might have to take them out long distance. Can you do that from where you're at?"

Once they stopped, he tried to get a good view of the guards at the exit. "Ugh... this would be a lot easier if I had a crossbow. I doubt I can throw accurately from this far." His face was momentarily overtaken by a mischeivous smile. "And just so you know, I was talking about the seats getting in my way. But by all means, talk about your butt more if you want. It's not bad at all."

"I can kick you in the face from here."

"Fair point."

Julienne looked back out to the guards. Guess it was her turn. "Well, I can do something. I'm going to distract them. When I do, you attack them. Okay? Just don't hit me if you throw something."

"Hit a lady? Me? I shudder at the thought, so no worries."

Julienne nodded before she coughed loudly, making sure to add in a realistic hacking noise. She crawled forward, lowering herself down on the floor, which caused the guards to jump to attention. She continued her coughing, holding her stomach and walking slowly towards them. "*cough* *cough* Yo, I'm really sick. *cough* *cough* I think I'm gonna throw up. *cough* Can you take me to the *cough* bathroom?"

The guards looked at each other, contemplating what to do. They weren't supposed to let anyone leave, but they really didn't want this girl to blow chunks all over the place and then get in trouble for it. "Eh... can you just throw up over the railing instead? We're not supposed to let you leave."

"I -" Julienne fell down on her knees in a fake coughing fit, making both the guards go over to her and see if she was alright. From behind her back, she motioned for Davian to make his move. The guards were almost perfectly in line with the row they were in.

Dammit, those guys are a bit too far apart... Oh! It looks like I'm not gonna need the daggers at this point. He reached into his shirt and his boot sheath to pull out the daggers when Julienne first started talking to them. Davian then re-liquefied the daggers and added them to the baton to make it almost a full staff before aligning himself to the drop. He braced himself and took off, running as hard as he could from across a different section of seats. "Thank whatever gods I'm still in shape!" He leapt as far as he could and reached as far forward as possible with the staff, bringing it down on both guards' at the same time.

Julienne stood up as both the guards fell down beside her. "Not bad." She commented, looking at them both. "Coulda just thrown something at them, but that works too. Now then." She began to walk towards the exit that lead back into part of the lobby.

"Woah woah woah, hold on. The lobby is one of the most likely paths escapees would take. It's probably guarded well too." Davian whispered to Julienne as he sidled up to her.

She stopped as Davian suddenly appeared next to her. But, he was right. She sighed, crossing her arms as she thought. "Well, I guess you're right. But where are we supposed to go? I mean, it's not like this place has some kind of escape tunn- AAAAH!"

Suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed Julienne from behind, sending electric shocks through her body that made her scream out in pain. Davian turned quickly as it happened. "Juli-" But before he could react, another guard came from nowhere and struck him in the stomach, kicking him into the wall. After a minute of shocking, the guard let go of Julienne, who immediately fell to the ground as she groaned in pain. Both guards turned towards Davian. The one who shocked Julienne spoke first. "Whoops, did we hurt your girlfriend? Sorry 'bout that. Guess you're next."

Davian gritted his teeth in pain and had to use all of his willpower not to grab his ribs. "I gotta say, I'm disappointed. I was beginning to think you guys were pretty smart... but then you decided a good hit to the gut was enough to stop me." He moved to sweep one of the guards' legs with his staff, but the man's reflexes were pretty sharp after all. He grabbed the staff with his gauntleted hand and thought he had one, but Davian was ready before he could think up a cocky retort. "Sorry pal, this metal doesn't conduct electricity. It's cellular structure -"

Before Davian could continue his explanation, the other guard came from the side and delivered a rough punch to his face. "No one asked for an explanation." He then proceeded to kick Davian down on the floor, pulling the staff from his grip and throwing it behind him.

"Learn some manners. I was speaking!" Davian made a few quick gestures with his hands, ending with a sweep towards himself. The staff seemed to change it's mind on the whole "being thrown" thing and proceeded to fly directly into the back of the mouthy guard's head. As soon as he was off balance, Davian used him as leverage to pull himself up. As soon as he had his balance, but before getting all the way up he backhanded the guy with one of his spiked bracelets.

The other guard took the opportunity given through his fallen partner to deliver a spinning kick right to Davian's face before stomping hard on the ground and kicking him in the same spot Davian had gotten kicked in the first time, sending him to the ground once again. Before Davian could do anything, the guard came over and stomped down on his wrist, grabbing Davian's shirt with the metal glove. "That's quite enough. You lose, son."

Davian kept his arrogant smirk on while he looked the guard in the face. "Hate to break it to you, but a smart man always has a back-uuuuuuuuuuuuuup -" The last bit of his sentence was drawn out by the electrical current that began to flow freely into Davian from the glove.

"Heh, that should shut you up." The guard stood back up, stepping off of Davian's wrist. "Now then, for the girl."

As the guard turned around, however, he was met with a terrible fate. Julienne had gotten up during the small fight and jumped right at the guard, the dagger gripped tightly in her hand. Before the guard could get a hold on her, she landed on him, pushing him to the ground and driving the dagger into his chest. The guard screamed as the metal entered his body, piercing him in the lungs Julienne held it in place for a few moments before angrily ripping it out, throwing it to the side. The guard made a few nasty choking sounds before he finally stopped moving and, well, died.

Julienne immediately jumped over away from the guard, realizing exactly what she had just done. She looked at her hands, hoping not to see any blood on them, and was relieved to find that they were clean. She shuddered slightly when she looked back over at the dagger before crawling over to Davian. "Dude, get up. We don't have time for this. Come on." She gave him a gentle slap across the face.

The beat-up Metal Bender blinked absently a few times before his eyes really shot open and he shook his head. "Easy for you to say. A cracked rib and a gajillion volts of electricity slows a guy down." He coughed hard a few times and was pleased to see no blood came out.

Julienne decided against reminding Davian that she had gotten shocked too and helped him sit up, being careful not to hurt his ribs more than they already were. "Right. Sorry. Okay, so... now what? Where are we supposed to go, and how are we supposed to defend ourselves while we get there? You aren't exactly in prime fighting condition, and I'm... I'm not touching that dagger."

Davian sat up and patted Julienne's shoulder. "Well for what it's worth, thank you. Don't feel too bad; you did what you had to. Speaking of which, I'm done trying to be a good human being and just knock these guys out." He stood the rest of the way up and grabbed the dagger off of the floor. He separated the staff and the dagger back into two orbs before concentrating and giving them new shapes. Both orbs formed into long swords with cutlass handguards and blades like a straight katana. "We're going to have to hope there is a better path out, because they've definitely got some guys who actually know how to fight."

"W-W-Whoa now, hold on!" Julienne was extremely frightened by the fact that Davian was literally planning to go on some kind of morbid killing spree. "We don't need to kill anyone! I... I have a weak stomach, and I don't think I can hold that fried chicken down if I see any of that. Besides, killing people is wrong, and they weren't trying to kill us! Let's just..." She gently pushed the blades away from her. "... not do that."

Davian pivoted and held the swords upright away from Julienne. "Listen to me; I'm not gonna go looking for trouble. If I can avoid violence, I will, but that whole ordeal right there just proved that if any of these guys are strong enough to power through one of my hits I might not win."

Julienne didn't take too kindly to this suggestion. "Dude, you can't do that. Killing people is wrong, okay? It's just... you can't do that."

"We can sit here and argue about morals or we can try to get out. Those guys may not be out to kill us right now, but they're looking an awful lot like equalists. And if that's true, you'll probably be fine. But since it's not very likely they have someone who can take bending away, what do you think will happen to me if we get caught?" Davian paused to let the last sentence sink in.

Julienne was silent for a moment, and then she stomped her foot down. "Ugh! I can't believe this is even happening..." She muttered, crossing her arms and looking away. "Why do we have to kill people? I can't bring myself to d..." She stopped when she realized that she literally just did. "... do it again."

"You don't have to." Davian tried to make his voice sound reassuring. "I don't expect you to fight anymore. Besides, I've already made my peace with killing in a situation like this..." He didn't elaborate. "I think I know a path that might not be so heavily guarded. They took out the pro benders right away before anyone else, I think."

"Exactly, it's not logical. The actual competition platform is a good distance away from the stands so normal people couldn't just jump down. And if they've already got all the pro benders, why would they expect anyone to leave through either of the training rooms?"

"... I'm not following."

"It basically just comes down to 'they shouldn't expect anyone to leave that way' so we can either try to get out through the training rooms or push through the lobby. If you can think of something better, I'm all ears."

Julienne pondered both possibilities. Okay, the lobby didn't sound too safe, and with the Training Rooms already raided, it'd probably be easier to get out that way. Of course, there was no guarantee that they were safe, but it seemed better than just standing here and waiting for another attack. "Okay... that works. But how are we gonna get down to the platform?"

Davian put his hand to his chin. "That's a good question. Do you have any gloves?"

"Nope. Nothing but the clothes on my back."

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to make some and hope the friction isn't enough to burn the nerves off of my poor little hands. Here you go." He reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of fairly thick leather gloves and handed them to Julienne.

She loooked at the gloves questioningly. "Uh... what exactly did you have in mind to get us down there that would involve... burning the nerves in our hands?"

"Well." Davian began, taking one of his Omni-Orbs and stretching it bit by bit. "I'm thinking I can make a metal chord that will get us down to the platform from the edge of the stands. Hence the gloves, althought i don't think the metal ones I'm gonna have to make myself will protect or grip too well."

"Um... well, what if I just hung onto you while we slide down so you can use the gloves? That way we can both get down without risking, y'know, falling in the water. Or nerve damage. Or both."

Davian scratched his chin a bit. "Y'know, if I was better looking I'd think that was just an excuse. But it's a good idea. Do you think you can hold onto me tight enough to stay on your own or should I hold onto you? I'll only have one free hand so it would be hard to keep my positioning... appropriate."

She bit her lip slightly in hopes of clearing the awkward. "Well, um... I'm pretty sure I can hold onto you. No big deal. And if I fall, well... I can swim, so I'll take a platform up to one of those balconies and be right in the training room."

"Good thing you made the suggestion, I just realized I can't make gloves and make the chord long enough." Davian added the second orb to the chord and kept lengthening it while he spoke. "Alright, I think this'll do; you ready?"

Julienne gulped, handing the gloves to Davian. "I guess so. Just know that none of this is intentionally sexual. Don't get any funny ideas."

Davian slipped the gloves on and smiled. "Not intentionally, but I can't help ideas. I've got self control." He made his way towards the stands again. "C'mon, don't worry. I won't tell your friend we had any physical contact. And I don't let my hands wander."

I should tell her that the only physical contact was my fist in your face. Julienne thought angrily as she followed Davian to the stands. "Okay then. So, did you think about how to do this discreetly? Because I think people might notice two people sliding down a metal bar onto the platform."

He coiled the chord a couple of time and slipped it over his shoulder. "Another wise question... seems to me like we'll either have to hope our original seats are still fairly clear of guards after knocking those guys out.- wait, those guys!" He looked towards the lobby entrance and, sure enough, the two guards he had knocked out with his mini-staff were still there. "Maybe if we each put one of their fancy gauntlets on, anybody who sees us will think we're chasing down an escaping bender or something."

"Well... that is a good idea, but from the looks of it, these people aren't really benders. If you did put those things on, you probably shouldn't metalbend in them. Besides, we never know what they can do. They might be set to be specifically for one person and will electrocute anyone who isn't them that tries to wear them. They could also be locked onto their wrists and only be taken off with a passcode."

"Maybe for the higher ups and such, but I'm sure enough of these guys are just regular jerks who believe in the cause. There's no way they could afford to put all the time and effort to make each gauntlet special. They must have a basic mass-produced version for the grunts. We'll just have to hope that's the case with some of the guys we've already taken out."

"... I guess it's a better defense than a hastily-made metal dagger. No offense." Julienne climbed up into the row above Davian so she could walk along towards the three unconscious guys they had knocked out before.

Davian hoisted himself up beside her and knelt beside one of the guards. "Let me try first just in case I'm wrong, I may be a jerk but I'm not watching you get hurt again if I can help it."

"Okay, I get it. You can ease up on the nobleman act now. I'm not completely useless." She crossed her arms. "Dude just caught me by surprise is all."

"I'm not criticizing; did it look like I was prepared for them? I'm just saying there's no way to be prepared if it is booby-trapped and I'd rather not see it happen to you. Don't be so defensive. You've saved my butt twice, I'm not gonna underestimate you." He reached for the guard's right arm and after a few good pulls, the gauntlet came off. "So far so good." He slipped the guantlent onto his own right hand and flexed his fingers a few times. "Looks like we're in business."

"Great." She reached down and grabbed one, slipping it on as well. "Ooh, I like these. It's so weird how they're made of metal but still so flexible. You should totally learn how to do this. Can you make something like this with metalbending?"

"Well... I made an almost living metal that can switch between solid and liquid states with a bit of bending, so I don't see why not. After all, there are flying machines and moving pictures. Tell you what, if we ever meet again after this remind me." He stood back up and crept over to the railing. "You ready?"

"Yup. let's do this." She put her hands on the railing, looking down over the water. "Quick question though: did you test your bending in the gloves yet like I said before?"

"Good idea, let's see." He held the chord in his left hand and swept his fingers back and forth with the right. After a few moments the chord remained still but Davian's right hand jerked over his shoulder and then back in front of him. "Well... that's a bit of a downer, but I can still bend with my left hand just fine. As long as neither of us slips and I don't have to catch you, we should be good. If worse comes to worse, I can use some bending to make the chord move the way we want it to."

"Yeah, try not to move it while we're sliding down unless it involves stopping us from crashing into something." She added. "So, you ready? Because once we get down there, it's action mode. Probably."

"Ready? I'm looking forward to it; sliding down a metal chord towards impending doom with a lady sounds fun no matter how she feels about me. Just get a good grip on me however you think would be easiest to hold on and let's go. I'd say don't you get any ideas, but girls are a bit more subtle than that when they want something."

"Just shut up and get on the cord before I push you off the stands." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah." Davian tied the cord around the railing tightly and stepped up to get the angle right. "Okay, step on up and let me be a hero for once." He teased with a light chuckle.

She rolled her eyes but gently stepped up, placing a hand on his shoulder to keep her balance. "Alright... so how am I gonna do this while we're standing up here without falling off the rail?"

He almost slammed the palm of his hand onto his temple right then and there. "Well that's an impressively idiotic lapse of judgement on my part, although it does help that you're already up here. Makes for less climbing." He hopped off the railing and turned away from Julienne, putting his hands palm up behind him in case she needed help. "Here you go, all aboard the metal jerkward express."

She grabbed his hands, almost losing her balance as he jumped down. After a momentary pause, she jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, somewhat awkwardly. "Er... alright, I guess this'll work. Somewhat."

When Julienne almost put him in a stranglehold, Davian's neck muscles tensed as he tried to keep his breathing steady. "I was just expecting an arm on my shoulder and one around my waste, but whatever. There's nothing that would make this awkward for me."

"Yeah... right. Sorry." Julienne felt extremely uncomfortable on Davian's back, but couldn't really do anything about it because it was two certain things causing the discomfort. Times like this makes me wish I didn't have breasts.

Davia stepped back onto the railing and then over, setting both gloved hands on the metal cord. It was the jarring of landing that made Davian finally realize what the two points of extra pressure on his back were. "Here we go. I'll try to go softly."

Julienne honestly wasn't even listening to him. As soon as the two bounced during the landing, her already intense grip grew worse, to the point where she could probably squeeze Davian's heart out if she were stronger. "ohmygodhoymgodjustgoogogogogogogo-"

Julienn's rambling was interrupted by a shifting in their gravity and a, "Your wish is my command." When Davian stepped off of the edge and they began to slide downward. His neck muscles tensed harder in an attempt to keep air circulating through him; he was slowly failing. "I... ack... might not be able to hold on tight enough if I can't breathe."

Julienne, who was adorning the most painful looking face nodded somewhat. "S-Sorry... I'll try to slide down a bit..." Although the idea seemed great in theory, the minute Julienne let go of Davian's neck, she slid down too far, causing her to deliver her intense deathgrip to Davian's, well... waist. "ohmygodohmygodohmygofasterpleasegofastergetmeoffofthisthingohmygod."

"Agh!" Davian's hold on the cord loosened dangerously when Julienne slid downward and their progress became considerably faster... and more dangerous, his voice had also been raised an octave or so. "I just meant to loosen up a bit! Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap." When they got close to the bottom, Davian was finally able to hold on tightly again, slowing them down and making a loud scraping noise thanks to the metal in the equalist glove. The cord began to sway hazardously back and forth.

Julienne squealed each time she felt herself swaying, her grip getting worse with each one. "GETMEOFFOFTHISTHINGOHMYGOD PLEASAERGET ME OFF OH MY GOD EEEEEEEE." Her words became a jumbled, incoherent mess as each minute passed, and her grip would make any man in Davian's situation feel rather feminine afterwards considering the damage being dealt.

Right now I'm really wishing I could make a certain place metal. This is not how it's supposed to happen when a guy and girl are alone. "Alright that's enough! I'd rather kiss the platform than this, and I don't care if I piss you off!" Davian used a quick bet of bending with his left hand to make the cord swing towards the platform. Once he was satisfied with the way they were moving, he grabbed Julienne's shoulder, hiked her up and put an arm under her legs. He didn't care where it was he gripped her; he just had to end this. Once he had her secure he leapt towards the platform and angled himself so Julienne was directly on the other side of him, opposite from the platform. The positioning elicited quite a loud, "Oof!" and an even louder scream of terror when they landed, once that more than likely brought every guard in the arena to attention.

"The lobby... sounds... like heaven right now... berry protecting heaven..." Davian muttered in his stupor of pain and fatigue.

Julienne immediately released Davian's grip on her legs with a smack to his hand before she crawled forward and immediately began kissing the ground. "Oh sweet ground, baby, don't you ever leave me again. Oh good god I missed you so much." After her ground worshipping was over, she immediately turned to Davian, her face very red and angry-looking. "What the hell was that? What the hell was that? Why did you sling me over your shoulder like that? Huh? What if I fell? Do you think I would have survived a fall like that?! What if I hit my head off the platform when I fell? And just so you know, you almost grabbed me in the crotch. You're lucky I have long legs or I would be bashing your damn face in right now!"

When Davian finally felt he could stand up, he just looked Julienne absently in the face while she yelled at him. Why does she look so much hotter than I remember right now? I think I have a problem. "You're going to give me crap about where my hand went? I guess the fact that I shielded you with my face doesn't count for much in light of what a pervert I am."

She squinted her eyes angrily. "Frankly, I hope it hurts. For a long, long time."

"I guess I should have left you up there since I'm such a jerk. You'd probably be better off without the likes of me." He was really beginning to wish Julienne's evaluation of him was true so he wouldn't have a reason to care. "Besides, did you really have to squeeze me like that? These gauntlets work just fine for sliding; maybe I'm not the one with grabbing issues. Now let's go before whoever heard your scream gets here."

She opened her mouth to protest against his lewd statements, but immediately she shut up when she realized that she probably could have and most definitely should have slid down the cord herself. How that didn't occur to her, she didn't know. "... Whatever. So how do we get to the training rooms from here, genius?"

Davian liquefied the cord and reconstituted the orbs in his hands before putting them back in their pouches. "Easy, we walk. Maybe you were too unfocused too notice while we plummeting here, but they never finished closing everything up before this attack started. The entry walkways are still connected to the platform. We need to go now and I'm not leaving you at this point, whatever you think of me."

"Fine then, we'll go now." She mocked, making rather childish "meh" sounds afterwards. "Don't wait up." She immediately stormed ahead of him angrily, her hair bouncing in synchronization as she stomped across the platform with gusto."Frickin' metalbenders..." she mumbled.

He watched her stomp towards the training rooms and let out a huge sigh. "I guess I'm not doing this for thanks. But would it kill her to appreciate that I'm not even angry at her for nearly sabotaging us?" He shrugged and followed her.

However, as he stepped on the platform and she stepped off, there was an almighty humming, which caused both of them to stop. Before they could react, the walkways began to slowly retract back into the platform on both sides. Julienne hastily looked around. "Dude, what's going on? Come on, you need to hurry over here and - look out!"

From behind Davian came a random guard, hand electrified and ready to attack.

Davian decided he had kept the stupid gauntlet long enough and pegged the guard right in the face with it. Once it hit its target, he clenched his fist and the gauntlet released its payload as if he were still wearing it. While Davian turned back to cross the walkway he shouted. "Keep going! Don't wait for me!"

"Dude, I'm not leaving you behind! I don't care how rude you are, I still need - ah!" A guard from behind grabbed Julienne, holding her to where she could only struggle and kick her legs. "Let go of me you creep!" Despite the force of her struggling, he slowly began to inch his way over to the edge of the platform, probably planning to throw her off.

"It'll be easier to cross if you're not in the - no!" Various obscenities left Davian's lips as he sprinted towards the pair across the retracting walkway. Why is nothing ever simple with women?! He was halfway to the other side when he noticed the guard was dragging Julienne towards the edge. "You're looking for benders, right? Then try this on for size, YOU COWARD!" In one fluid movement Davian took the Omni-Orbs out of their pouches and, in a miracle of emergency, formed them into the blades from earlier. When he reached the edge of the walkway, he realized there was no other choice. He jumped in complete defiance of how badly his most sensitive area hurt and how hard his legs tried to ignore him. After a few moments of sailing through the air, Davian realized with horror that he wasn't going to make it. No... no. I can't watch somebody die again! He thrust the right sword forward with adrenaline's precision and buried it in the guards shoulder. Immediately afterwards gravity took hold of him again and only his left sword getting caught on a gap in the floor kept him up a few moments longer.

As soon as the guard was stabbed, Julienne forced herself from his grip. She immediately turned around and delivered a sharp punch right to his face, making him stumble backwards into the railing. She followed up with a nice cheap shot with her foot, using the force of the kick to push the guard over the edge. She wasted no time and dove over, grabbing Davian's hand as the sword came loose and fell down towards the water. Her other hand held onto the railing desperately as she tried not to drop him. "Ah... this is really bad... I don't know if I'm strong enough to pull you up."

Davian was incoherent with relief for a moment. "You're alive... thank god."

"Well, yeah, great. How am I supposed to get you up here without tearing my arm to pieces?" She looked around, hoping for some kind of thing he could grab onto. That railing... "Okay... I'll try to pull you up somewhat. When you think you can reach it, grab the railing and get up here. Think you can do it?"

"Can't lose to fate now. I'm getting up there if I have to let go and climb up from the water by hand later, so give it a shot!"

"Okay. I hope those workout videos pay off!" She grunted painfully and began slowly pulling Davian up with all her might, clenching her face in extreme pain as she did so. WHAT DOES THIS KID EAT?! JEEZ! "C-C'mon, grab the stupid thing!"

As soon as Davian felt himself lifted a few inches higher he swung his right arm as hard as he could at the railing. His first attempt was a failure, but the second time his fingers wrapped around the railing and he started pulling as hard as he could until he felt himself moving upwards. Only a few seconds after his right hand started working it's magic his left hand lost his grip on Julienne's. He hadn't realized it in the haze of adrenaline and determination, but when his sword caught in the floor the wrenching had dislocated his wrist. Luckily Davian had done plenty of pull-ups and he could make it one-handed, however slowly.

As soon as Davian's feet touched the balcony floor, Julienne ran over from her kneeling spot and hugged him tightly - not tightly enough to kill him. "Don't scare me like that ever again! I seriously thought you were a goner, dude!"

Before Davian realized he was really safe or thought much of anything he found himself hugging Julienne back. "Why couldn't you just go? I thought you were gonna die!" For a second, an image of a handsome young firebender looking at him with empty eyes flashed through Davian's mind and his vision blurred a bit when his eyes moistened.

"Dude, I thought you were gonna die! I couldn't just let that happpen. I wouldn't want to deal with that kind of guilt." She commented back, just now noticing that he was hugging her back too. "I was fine until freakshow showed up. Thanks for bailing me out though. I kinda needed it."

Davian stopped the skipping record that was his head from repeating she's alive she's alive I didn't have to watch anyone die. He let go of Julienne. "I really hope he was the last guy between us and the exit... I'm not feeling so tough right now." He shook his left arm with its useless hand a bit.

Julienne leaned to the side a bit, looking behind Davian and then turning her head to the side to look out at the stands. "As long as those twenty guys in the stands can't get down here, I'm sure we're good." She tried to ignore the nagging feeling that she kind of enjoyed Davian's hugs and didn't want to let him go, trying to keep a cool demeanor like Angelique would. She would be so much better at stuff like this... She wouldn't need bailed out like that... and Davian would probably be happy to hug her over me... ugh why am I even thinking that? Does it matter? Stupid thoughts...

"I, uh... er... I'm sorry I squeezed you like that. I don't know what came over me."

"... Well... considering that I accidentally destroyed your pelvis, I think we can just call it even, m'kay? Besides, all you did was grab my thigh. Nothing too serious about that."

Davian scratched the back of his head. Why am I getting all worked up about this? Am I really that messed up? I feel like a child, Getting all emotional. He stood up, realizing that Julienne hadn't let go of him yet.

As soon as Davian stood up, Julienne realized that she was still hugging him. She immediately let go, her hands flying behind her head. "Haha, right, yeah. Let's, um... we should keep moving."

Oh God I'm such a blonde...

He only smiled at her. "Just a second." He grabbed his left wrist and jerked it one way, and then the other, causing Julienne to wince. Once it finally snapped into place he grimaced and shook it a bit. "There, now I can use it... no matter how bad it hurts." Without a thought he patted Julienne's shoulder once. "Alright, it's about time we finished our daring escape... I can't wait to tell the story of how some random girl saved my life. I make a better damsel in distress than I would've thought."

"... Oh wow, I just felt some of the chicken from earlier come back up." She turned tail and walked towards the training rooms slowly, trying not to let the overwhelming sickness caused by Davian's wrist repair hinder her.

"Oh my... sorry!" Davian called after her while he moved towards the training rooms, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Quite a day... isn't it, Bouho?

Angelique Everett & Xiu LimAngelique wasted no time in going right into the fray of her attackers, jumping up above their extending grasps to land down on one of them with a knee right to the chest. As the attacked guard attempting to grab her, she flipped forward out of his reach and spun around, facing the other two who came at her swiftly. She jumped back and flung three cards at each, slicing them on their arms but not slowing them down as much as she needed. She ducked under a punch from both and delivered a front kick to the face of the other guard who was attempting to stand up. She faced the other two, who were recovering from their missed attack. "You guys are supposed to be professionals, right? This isn't very professional."

"Great, another mouthy one. How many of these have we had to deal with today?" One complained, holding his hand up. Angelique stepped back as the glove began humming before a massive shot of something blew her back down the street, causing her to tumble and roll until she slammed into the railing.

She groaned and pushed herself up, her side screaming in protest. "Jeez, I need one of those." She ran back once again, this time lighting her hands on fire as the two drew closer. She aerial-flipped over the next two punches and landed behind both them, continuing the momentum by flow-spinning around and punching one in the head before dipping down and roundhousing the last one, who blocked it somewhat. He reached for her once again, but she flipped out his way. "This is just sad. The people they hire for your job must be really underpaid."

The guard sent a punch flying at Angelique, which she ducked under and delivered a punch to the guy's gut. However, she definitely overestimated her power behind it, and he kneed her in the stomach, almost making her keel over, before pushing her down on the street. "Actually, we're paid a great deal depending on who we capture. You're probably worth a lot, although that temper of yours could be better."

Meanwhile, Xiu had traveled several meters and had surfaced outside the the arena at a distance she deemed safe and scanned the area in front of her. She could see many Equalist look-alikes guarding the front door, but she could also see much of the side of the arena was for the most part unguarded. Near the back there was some sort of activity, but she couldn't quite see what was happening from this angle. Interesingly enough, there was one stretch of ground along the side of the arena that was almost empty except for a single Equalist who seemed to be taking a break, considering the fact that they had their glove off and were smoking. Xiu found it a little strange that someone would take a smoking break in the middle of what she presumed was a big operation, but thinking back, she remembered how impulsive her decision to visit the arena was. It seemed that this group had been either waiting until she reached an area that was fit for attack, or that this specific attack was cobbled together last minute upon their learning that she was going to see the match. How they knew was irrelevant for now, but the fact that this attack was identical to the one seventy years prior and the fact that there was someone taking a break just to smoke and looking very unprepared while doing so both seemed to support the latter theory.

Xiu continued scanning the area around her when she noticed a flash of light from where she had come from. Actually, it was more like several small flashes. It seemed that Angelique had been found, the lights probably being from the Equalist's gloves and Angelique's firebending. Realizing that her only ally could be in danger, she decided to return and help. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to get back as quickly as could potentially be necessary so she instead turned to the water falcon swimming nearby. Tamed birds were more responsive when spoken to, so she figured that she could try ordering it to go ahead of her and help. "Hey, little guy," she started, getting the bird's attention.

She thought for a moment about what to say and remembered a couple things, specifically that she mentioned a guy who flirted with her at the arena and that she seemed to really dislike this bird's master. Considering what she knew about her personality, it was probably safe to say the two were one in the same. "I know you probably don't like that girl from earlier, what with her trying to strangle you, but your master really likes her and he wouldn't want her to get hurt." At this point she was just taking a stab in the dark, but she hoped that the guess was educated enough to have some sort of validity. "She's in trouble right now and needs your help. You don't have to do it for her or you, but at least do it for your master. Also, I'll see if I can get you a treat as a reward, okay?" She smiled as she finished her attempt to convince the bird to help her. Water falcons took effort to tame, so she assumed that the bird's master really cared about the bird (although why they were separated was a mystery to her and something that could potentially ruin this if it wasn't an accident) and focused on that for her plea. The reaction from the falcon seemed to imply that it had worked, as it paused for a moment before bursting out of the water, rocketing to Angelique's location. Now she just needed to think about how she would handle things when she made it there.

Before the guard could finish off Angelique with a nice little shock to the neck, his attention was drawn to a blue projectile flying right towards his face. Despite his quickest attempt to grab it, said projectile crashed into his face, causing him to stumble backwards before tripping and falling on the ground. Falco skidded to a halt on the ground, flapping up and squawking angrily at the guy.

"Ah jeez, we're fighting with a bird now?" The guard groaned, jumping up at the same time as Angelique. "This wasn't in my job description..."

"Was getting beat up by a teenage girl in your job description? Because if so, lucky you."

Instead of going directly to where the action was, Xiu moved off to the side far enough so that they wouldn't immediately notice her in the middle of their battle since they were too focused on Angelique. Even if they did, she would have space to get away. Fortunately, it didn't seem like she had been seen so she moved over behind a building where she could see what was happening and think of a plan. While she did so, she began to move water from the bay to where she was in the form of a very small stream along the ground, slowly accumulating it between her hands into a growing sphere. After a little while, her sphere had grown to an acceptable size, at least for what she planned to use it for. Peeking out from behind the corner of the building she had been using as cover, she saw that the Equalists had gotten over the surprise from the falcon's arrival and prepared themselves once more for battle. Now would be a good time to hit them with yet another surprise.

Xiu stepped out from her cover slightly to be able to move and aim better before propelling the large glob of water forward where she then threw it towards the Equalists, expanding it so it was more like a wave. The end result was that the enemies had become wet. At first her opponents gave a look of surprise at the wave, but after realizing it had done nothing to hurt them, they turned their attention to its source. However, before they could respond to the arrival of yet another combatant, Xiu began to bend the water directly from the bay nearby and sent a trio of aquatic tendrils to snare the feet of each attacker and drag them into the water where she promptly heard the crackling of electricity. She waited several seconds before she pulled the people back out of the water, dropping the unconscious bodies a good distance from her. "Are you okay, Angelique?" she asked her companion.

Angelique was somewhat bewildered - did a water octopus just devour those people? Well, now it was hard to dispute that Xiu was the Avatar. "Yup, perfectly fine. I'm glad I didn't eat. That kick would've made me throw up." She shook her head. "Did you get to the arena? What's going on down there?"

"I didn't manage to get far before seeing what was happening here, but I did see something." Xiu paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. She figured whether or not this attack was planned on-the-spot was of little concern to Angelique, so she decided to focus on what probably did matter to them here and now. "While I wasn't able to see exactly what they were doing, the Equalists were definitely doing something at the back of the arena. That happens to be where the supplies and other stuff is brought in, so if I had to guess, they're using that to either transport weapons or reinforcements in, or they're shipping something out. Either way, it means two things: there's a lot probably going on there at any given time, and there's a way into the arena from there."

Xiu crouched down and slowly metalbent the equalist glove off of its wearer, not quite wanting to touch a metal object that used electricity while it was all wet. "I'm thinking we might be able to use disguises, but that's risky. We could always wait for Thokmay to get back, hopefully with reinforcements, before making a move as well, but I think that the back is probably our best chance at getting in."

"Disguises? Xiu, you do realize that these people are wearing regular everyday clothing, right?" Angelique noted. "What kind of disguise would we need?"

"Equalist gloves, masks, and not nice dresses," she said, gesturing to her current outfit.

"Oh... well, the dress I can understand. And I should probably change too, since I doubt this outfit is common in Republic City." She sighed. "Alright, so where are we gonna get the clothes we need? I don't think we can steal them from these guys."

Xiu was silent, considering that that was exactly what she had planned to do. "Why not?" As she spoke, she blew air forcefully at the gloves she had pried off the Equalists by now, trying to dry them off.

"Good point." Xiu was under the impression that any clothes suggesting a lower class would do, but what Angelique had said also held true. She could try adjusting the size, but she used a machine to sew for the most part, one that was at her study. Stealing from any nearby stores was probably not an option either, so that left only a few options. Steal clothes from other Equalists closer to their size, try to alter the size with a makeshift needle and thread, wherever she would find that, or wait for Thokmay. She looked back at the unconscious bodies in front of her and then back to Angelique. There was another option, though. "This will probably be even more risky than disguises, but how good would you consider yourself when it comes to stealth?"

"Eh, I'm pretty good. I'm light on my feet. Why?"

Xiu realized that she should stop assuming that other people would be able to figure certain things out and just operate under the assumption that they couldn't unless told otherwise. "If we can't get disguises, we'll just have to sneak in. I take it you don't exactly want to wait for Thokmay to get back with Julienne in danger."

"I was already planning on sneaking inside, so yeah. You don't always need a complicated plan to do something right." She replied, walking towards the arena.

Xiu followed suit, walking behind. She turned to Angelique and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to go underwater? It'll be faster and you can see all the fish underneath! Well, it's night now so probably not, but it's still kinda fun!"

Angelique fondly thought back to this morning, when Bird Freak had hit her with the hybrid fish rolls. Not a great memory. "I don't like the water. And fish smell."

With an exaggerated sigh, Xiu smiled and replied, "Your loss. I think fish can be cute sometimes."

"Yeah, they're so adorable when they're flopping on the beach and gasping for air like idiots. I like fish better in a deep-fryer, honestly."

"Aww, that's no fun. Tasty, but not fun." Xiu almost pouted, but realized that they were approaching their destination and began to prepare, changing her mindset a little and lowering her voice further. In reality they were actually still fairly far, but she preferred to be prepared sooner. Better safe than sorry. "Have you never been to the beach or something?" She spoke in a hushed tone, trying to maintain the cheerful voice while keeping quiet.

"Yeah, I've been to the beach. It was fun for almost half an hour until a kid kicked sand in my face while I was trying to sunbathe. And then there was the creepy perv who was trying to sneek peeks at me. After that, I decided that I wasn't a beach person."

Honestly, Xiu had never actually been to the beach, only having read about it. In all the books it sounded like a center of fun, almost essential for summer vacations and such, but hearing it described like this made her apprehensive about taking any recreational visits there. "Hmm, maybe a pool is the place for you then."

"Well, living in an apartment doesn't leave a lot of room for pools. The most interaction I get with water is turning on the sink or taking a shower." Xiu seemed to be, well, pretty uncomfortable in her manner of speech. From the way she talked through her sentences, she sounded like she hadn't really gotten out in while. Of course, she seemed shy as is, so it made sense sort of.

Xiu thought of a way to continue the conversation, but figured that the topic of places to swim or watery hangouts had been exhausted. She was ready to think of a new one, but noticed that they were approaching their destination rapidly. "I think we should split up here and meet back up at the back entrance, or at least the closest safe area to it. That way if one of us is found, the other isn't and still has the element of surprise on their side."

"Xiu. You're making this too complicated." Angelique explained. She stopped them when they were somewhat close to the arena grounds. "Do you know a lot about humans? They can be easily distracted and deceived very easily. Do you have anything that would make a loud sound when it hits something?"

Xiu stopped walking. "Don't laugh, okay?" She started shuffling through her bag (which was quite wet at this point) and pulled out a slingshot and a bag containing the metal balls she had bent earlier. "I've got this thing. It's important to me, so its not just a toy."

"Chillax, don't go full-blown diva on me." She took the slingshot and loaded a metal ball into it before pulling it back, aiming in the direction of the grounds, closing one eye to help her accuracy. "Point me in the direction of a guard that's close enough to all the others. If I can hit him and have him cause a lot of noise, we can sneak around to the back without being noticed."

Would something so simple really work? If so, Xiu had been far overestimating these enemies. Of course, she had already entertained the possibility of this being a last minute attack, but a paramilitary organization that can be overcome by teenagers with slingshots was a little much. Stories of the Equalists made them out to be far more formidable. Thinking back, she noticed that just about all of the Equalists here were using the gloves, implying that they couldn't chi-block since such a skill would be inhibited by a heavy gauntlet. All in all, she figured that such a simple plan could actually work here. "We've got to get past the front first, so how about that one?" She pointed at a guard standing by the far side of the arena entrance. "The sides aren't very heavily guarded, actually. But can you aim higher than the actual guy? That way I can bend it so that it hits him from a different direction than it was shot."

"Whatever floats your boat." She pulled the slingshot back just a bit more before firing the ball, watching it swiftly fly through the air... before it whished behind his head and then smacked into him roughly as it curved around from Xiu's bending. Most of the other guards nearby jumped up and went over to check on their commerade that had fallen on the ground from the mysterious shot, leaving the side's perfectly open for sneaking around.

"Well, that's that then." She handed Xiu the slingshot again. "Let's get moving. The shrubbery should give us some cover."

Realizing just how different theory and practice were at this point, Xiu decided to simply follow the more experienced Angelique's lead and hopped behind the shrubbery as well. Once the guards were busy searching for their mystery assailant in the wrong place, she decided now was the time to move. She dashed, using airbending to make her steps lighter, but was pulled back by something. She looked back and realized that her dress had been caught by the shrub. Unfortunately, she didn't exactly have anything to cut with and didn't want to risk snapping the small branch so she began to wrestle with detatching it. The movement resulted in a shaking that was probably worse than a simple branch snapping.

Angelique looked back at Xiu when she heard the shrubs shaking, and immediately rushed back. "Xiu, what the hell are you doing? They're gonna see us! Just rip the stupid thing off and let's go before they come over here!"

That was a bit too late, because Angelique immediately heard shouting coming from the other side of the shrubs, as well as hasty footsteps. "Great. Okay, I really, really hope you don't get mad at me for this. Sorry, girl." Angelique reared back her first and punched Xiu in the face, knocking her to the ground, before grabbing her arms and dragging her down. "Play along!" She whispered.

As the bushes parted, Angelique loudly exclaimed, "Sorry sister, no one catches the Avatar that easil- oh... crap."

The guards sneered as they stared down Angelique. "Well, that cuts the workload in half considerably, guys. Let's get this on with then."

The guards leapt over the shrubbery, tackling down Angelique on the ground as she struggled and shouted very rude verbal insults at all of her assailants. A guard came over to Xiu and helped her up, doing his best to remove her torn dress from the branch. "Ma'am, are you okay? What are you doing back here?"

Xiu had never been punched before, adding onto the fact that she wasn't exactly built like a brawler, so the impact left her incredibly dazed. She could barely keep track of what was happening around her, only hearing incoherent shouts. Great, so this is what I get for deciding to trust another person's plans. Next thing she knew, someone was helping her off the ground. "Y-ye-" She couldn't even get a single word out before she nearly tumbled to the ground again, being caught by the man. "Not... really."

The man pulled her up, letting her lean against him for somewhat indecent support. "Hey, you guys! This girl is really hurt! I think she needs some medical attention."

Another guard came over, inspecting the nearly-collapsed Xiu. "Is she a bender? ... Well, it doesn't matter now. We can't let her escape. We should just get her to the medical tent and then throw her into the crowd with everyone else. She's seen more than enough, so let's just keep her here."

Two other guards came over, bringing along Angelique, who was currently handcuffed and hair amess. "So, you're Xiu, huh? You were described as a lot frillier than... well, that. Is that some kind of disguise?"

"It's a disguise, morons." Angelique growled, flipping her bangs from her eyes. "Do you think I'm dumb enough to stay in my ridiculously bright dresses when sneaking around? If Miss Cow-Feet over there hadn't snuck up on me, I probably could've gotten inside before you idiots realized that I hit your friend over there with the metal ball."

"... Good point, I guess. Either way, the Boss will be happy to see you. Now we just gotta deal with all these civilians." The guard looked back at Xiu. "Like I said, get her to the medical tent and let's get this invasion thing over with."

Xiu listened to the exchange, baffled at how completely unprofessional these invaders were. It seemed that she had been treating every enemy as if their intellect matched her own, which was definitely not the case. It also seemed that she had underestimated Angelique's own wit. While she probably wasn't informed, she was probably the sort of person whose experience made them very "street smart". While this plan relied much on one person while endangering them both, it did get them inside quite easily and unharmed. For the most part. Regardless, she didn't appreciate the punch or the insults, as effective as they were, something that she'd have to take up with her after this was over with pouts and absurd hand gestures, maybe adding some fake tears into the mix.

The guards took Angelique away, leaving the two guards with Xiu. "Hey, can you help me with this one? She's pretty out of it. Guess that Avatar chick hit her hard."

"Yeah, I gotcha." The other guard grabbed Xiu's legs and lifted her up, allowing them to carry her across the grounds. "It didn't seem like too big of a struggle, though. Maybe this girl's just really, really weak?"

"No one's that weak, man." The guard laughed. "She had to use some kind of bending on her. Maybe she hit her in the face with some Earth pillar?"

"... You really have no idea how bending works, do you?"

__________________

at some point I must have liked that you look like a taco addict who's had one too many back alley liposuctions

Ryan Cutlass - Water Bender
Kalden - Air Bender

After having dealt with their captors and Ryan having unlocked his own and Kalden's cuffs, the two of them stood up and stretched out, Kalden flexing his fingers a little while glancing around himself again.

"Well, that wasn't too difficult. I had no clue the Equalists could pull off something like this... you've barely heard anything about them, like... ever. This is very weird."

He stepped over the unconscious form of the aptly named Dumb and proceeded to push the door open, peeking outside, his eyes widening as he steps fully through the doorway.

"... Huh. Pirate-boy, I think you'll be surprised as to where we are right now."

Ryan raised an eyebrow. "And what is that?"

Kalden poked his head back through the doorway and flashed Ryan a grin. "I think I'll let you see for yourself." Before heading out again.

Ryan shrugged, and stepped over the unconscious bodies of the two Equalists. Then, right before exiting, he stopped and turned around, noticing the peculiar gloves on Dumb and Dumber's hands. He smiled to himself.

Those look like the ones they used on us in the arena... Well, I don't get to do this everyday, so let's make the most of it.

As soon as he got out of the cabin, an all-too-familiar sense awoke him. "Waitamainute..." He looked around. "WE'RE ON A BOAT MADA-" he started singing, before Kalden rushed over and clamped a hand over his mouth, pressing a finger against his lips and then pointed towards a smaller cabin than the one they had been in, at the front of the ship. "I think Dumb and Dumber's got a friend here."

Ryan sighed as Kalden put down his hand. "Oh, sorry. But check this out though." Ryan stretched his fingers outwards, smiling. Immediately a small flash of electricity appeared. Using his other non-electric hand, he reached in his pocket, pulled out a pair of yellow-tinted sunglasses, and wore them. He gestured towards Kalden. "Flashing, right?"

Kalden's brows raised in surprise at the sight of Ryan's new gear, but quickly gave a little grin of approval. "Wow, nice. How about we go give our driver a tip and a pat on the back?"

"Yeah, he does deserve a reward for being such an awesome bender-kidnapping-ship-driver." Ryan took a while to figure out how to control the electricity, but after a few tries, he got it. The two benders quietly snuck to the driver's cabin. Luckily for them the door was slightly ajar. Slowly they pushed it open, carefully to not alert the driver. The latter was mumbling angrily to himself about "hating this job" and "should've been a janitor like my dad". After getting close to him, Ryan swiftly stood up and patted the driver on the neck, instantly electrocuting him and knocking him out.

"Well, now that's done... ONWARDS TO REPUBLIC CITY, MY CREW!" Ryan yelled in a triumphant pose, even though his only "crew" was an eye-rolling Airbender who had better things to do than getting kidnapped.

After about ten minutes of sailing and a combined effort of Kalden and Ryan, the ship came to a stop beneath the bending arena, next to a platform in the water beneath the pier. Kalden hopped off of the ship and onto the platform, walking over to what looked like a control panel, looking it over before glancing back at Ryan.

"This is where the arena receives stuff shipped via... well, ships. You can call down a lift here, which I bet is how they got us onto the boat. Probably a couple other benders as well, maybe even some civilians." He explained, tilting his head back and peering up at the underside of the arena, everything beneath the pier being nearly pitch-black.

"... We need to get up there and make sure everyone's alright. And hey." He turned around to face Ryan again, his hands placed at his hips as a look of realization painted his expression. "I just realized, I don't even know your name. And I don't know if you want me to call you pirate-boy all night." He added with a wry grin.

Ryan jumped off the ship onto the platform. "Pirate-boy's fine, really. But the name I might write on future autographs is Ryan. Ryan Cutlass. But honestly, pirate-boy sound way better."

Ryan sighed, and wiped his sunglasses which had gotten all foggy due to the humidity of the place. "Where do you think our stuff is? I couldn't find it anywhere in the driver's cabin and neither of the other Dummies had them." He took out the set of keys he had taken from Dumb (or Dumber, he couldn't remember) and examined them. "There are three of them, what do you think they're for? One if for the cuffs, but about the other two?"

"Hmh..." Kalden rubbed his cheek thoughtfully, folding one arm across his chest as he did. "I don't know. Maybe a weapon's locker, or the place they store all the stuff they take? Maybe it's for their headquarters? In any case, keep a hold of them."

He turned back to the control panel and pressed a couple of buttons, which prompted the smaller platform-lift, which must've been part of the floor of the basement of the arena to slowly descend towards them, held in place by some chains, seemingly. "For now though, we have to go find whoever's in charge here, and promptly boot them in the head for interrupting my championship!"

"Meh, it was done anyway. In my opinion the kidnapping made it more interesting. That last combo move your team did though, I guess you could say it was... breathtaking."

Kalden let out a laugh, raising a hand to give Ryan's back a pat, grinning as the lift came to a stop right next to the platform, which he and Ryan the proceeded to step onto, Kalden then pressing a button on the control pad on the lift itself, which prompted it to start rising towards the arena again. "Hah! That's pretty good! Huh, I'll have to remember that."

Ryan was surprised Kalden actually enjoyed his puns. "That's interesting, you actually liked that one! By now most people would be giving me the... cold shoulder."

He burst out laughing at his own joke followed by Kalden, which kept the two of them busy as the lift rose up and came to a stop in a nearly pitch-black room, aside from a small, yellow lamp hanging over a door off to the side. Kalden wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, still snickering as he stepped off of the platform. "Man, that was -good-. You're a pretty... cool guy, Ryan."

Ryan, who was choking right now, stopped himself from vomiting as Kalden told his joke. Faintly, he raised his hand in order to tell him to stop. "Okay... now we stop..."

After a few minutes of sneaking in corridors and avoiding anyone they thought they heard, the two benders walked into a small room with a few chairs dispersed around the place, and a dozen lockers, all painted with the Beetlefrogs insignia. On the other end of the room, there was a closed door. "This should be the Beetlefrog's locker room. This door should lead us to the arena, right?"

Kalden nodded and went "Yeah, it should. This looks pretty much like our locker room, so I guess so. Go on, take a peek through the door."

Ryan gave a worried look at the door, then looked back at Kalden. "Why me? You know the place better than I do! You go!"

"What's there to know? You just sneak a peek through the door, see if your sword, the Avatar or anyone else is back there, then we head off again!" Kalden replied, giving Ryan's shoulder a pat and an overly-wide, encouraging smile. "Besides, you're the brave, adventurous pirate!"

Ryan considered that final point. He's got a point. Sighing, Ryan slowly walked up to the door, and held the handle. "On the count of three. One, two... three."

He quickly opened the door, and poked his head through the opening. Staying on the other side of the opening, Kalden stuck close to Ryan, muttering out a quiet "What do you see?"

Ryan eyes grew wide. He was staring directly at three black-clad Equalists. "Oh sh**." He pushed away Kalden, and slammed the door behind him, his back to it. "We're screwed." Just as he finished his sentence, a slam was heard and the door trembled as one of the henchmen tried to kick the door open. Ryan shot a panicked glance at Kalden, with a "what do we do?" expression.

Kalden swiftly looked around the locker room, trying to figure out some kind of plan of attack, but aside from some chairs, a bench in the middle of the room and the various lockers, there wasn't anything they could use as such. He looked back to Ryan and stepped back, taking a deep breath as he raised his hands, flat-palmed, in a fighting stance, giving the pirate boy a firm nod.

As soon as Kalden gave his signal, Ryan jumped forward in a roll, just as the strongest of the three men smashed the door. Ryan swiftly stood back up, and instinctively reached for his cutlass. He felt around for it, but couldn't find it. He realized it was still with the Equalists. "Oh, man. This isn't gonna be easy." he muttered.

The three men spilled into the room, quickly surveying the situation, one of them raising a hand and pointing at Kalden. "The airbender! He's escaped!" to which Kalden replied "... Oh sh**.".

With this pointed out, one of the thugs ushered another towards Ryan while two of them ran straight for Kalden, one with a glove, and another wielding some type of stick, with visible arcs of electricity running up and down along it.

The most bulky Equalist had gone for him. Ryan quickly dodged the thug's punch by jumping to the side. "Hey come on, we can't have any hate between yellow-sunglasses-people! I guess you could say we're both Equalists, right?" Ryan chuckled as he ducked to avoid the chair being thrown at him. He then leaped forward at the thug's head, sending both of them to the floor, Ryan using the thug as a cushion. The Equalist angrily stood back up and activated his electric glove, his palm facing Ryan. "Oh sweet! High-five!" Ryan exclaimed as he jumped back up and immediately high-fived him with his own electric glove. Both of them briefly stood there for a moment, electrocuted by their own weapons, before each slumping to the ground unconsciously.

Meanwhile, Kalden ducked underneath the stick that was swung horizontally at him, followed by him kicking himself backwards to avoid a lunge by the other guy. "Whoa there! Be careful with that thing, you could really hurt someone!" The airbender continued ducking, dodging and jumping his way backwards, peering behind him for a moment to see the wall rapidly approaching.

After avoiding another swing of the stick, Kalden turned and ran, full-speed at the wall, with the Equalists right behind him. As he reached the wall, he didn't even stop, as he used his airbending to run up the wall, and, with a burst of air, sent him flying over the heads of the two guys who skiddingly turned around to face Kalden again, who landed on one foot and a knee, his hands pressed to the ground in front of him. He then promptly kicked a leg backwards, sending a gust of air into the glove-wielding guy, which slammed him into the wall behind him, making him slump over.

The stick-guy also had a burst of air shot at him, but he managed to leap over it, spinning in the air as he swung the stick downwards, Kalden wincing and only just managing to roll off to the side as the stick collided with the floor next to him. The Equalist continued swinging the stick downwards, trying to hit Kalden as the boy rolled and squirmed his way across the floor, until he had his back on the floor and the Equalist being too close for him to dodge the air-powered kick, which sent him skidding into the lockers at the back wall.

Kalden quickly got up, the guy with the stick preparing to charge again, at which point Kalden's eyes widened in a bright idea. He spun around himself once before raising his leg in a kick, which sent a gust of wind along the lockers, all of which flew open, one of them smacking square into the face of the Equalist, who slumped over on the floor.

"Hff... hff... looks like... you guys got the wind knocked out of you!" He grinned and placed his hands on his hips, looking around the room full of unconscious people and finally at Ryan. "... Dammit."

Basically everybody | Bending Arena hallways

"... It sounds like someone might be inside." Julienne whispered, her gloved hand rested on the slightly-ajar door. "Do you think we should still go in? It's really dark, and if it's those stupid Equalists, they'll probably spring on us from the shadows."

"Well, it's not exactly like we can go back the way we came." Davian replied, sparing a glance back to the main platform while he metalbended his Omni-Orbs back to the balcony.

"Well... yeah, guess you're right." Julienne gently slid the door open a bit more, to where she could just barely see inside. pleasedon'tbeanequalistpleasedon'tbeanequalistplease

Inside of the dressing room on the other side of the door, three Equalist-looking types were lying scattered on the ground, clearly knocked out, and near the middle, Kalden was hunched over the unconcious Ryan, removing the gauntlet from Ryan's arm just in case. He lightly smacked Ryan's cheek to try and wake him up, brows furrowed in worry. "Come on Ryan, get up. You can't rest now, what if there's more Equalists around?"

"... Is he seriously trying to wake up those guards?" Julienne questioned, squinting hard. "He's gonna get himself killed if he does that. Do you think we should stop him?"

"Are you sure that's what it's about? He can't be that stupid..."

"... You're really overestimating some of the people you meet." Julienne shook her head. "Okay, well, I don't want him waking that loser up and getting us captured. I'm going in." Before Davian could stop Julienne, she kicked open the door and... threw her glove right at Kalden's head while she screamed, "Knock it off you moron! You're gonna get us captured!"

As the door behind him swung open, Kalden barely even registered the words being yelled at him as he dove off to the side, just barely avoiding the glove which came crashing on top of Ryan. Using the momentum, he pushed himself onto his hands, his lower body raising into the air; he proceeded to spin around, lashing out with a kick that sent a horizontal gust of air flying towards the doorway, in case any of the possible new assaulters had made their way inside.

Julienne screamed as the guy she had almost hit with her glove immediately jumped up and kicked a gust of wind at her, which caused her to get flung into the wall very roughly. "Ow ow ow ow ow, what the hell are you doing?! I'm not a bad guy, you idiot!"

Kalden pushed himself off of the floor with his hands, landing on the floor with one hand pushed further out than the other in a combat-ready stance. However, the girl's words caught him off-guard, leaving him blinking in surprise for a few moments. "... Why the hell did you scare me like that, then?! And you threw something at me too!"

"You were trying to wake up that gu -" Julienne froze, looking at the guy lying on the ground as he was slightly electrocuted by the glove. "... wait a minute. He's a... waterbender..." She looked back at Kalden, and then at the fallen guy, and Kalden again. "... Well that didn't give you a right to slam me into a freaking wall! Do you have any idea how much that hurt?! I just hit my head on a concrete wall because of you!"

"Well, what do you think someone should do if something gets thrown at them with no warning? What happened when someone got the drop on us?" Davian interjected, leaning with apparent disinterest against the doorway.

"Shut up Davian, this doesn't involve you!" Julienne snapped, before turning back to Kalden with an angry expression. "That seriously hurt! I could have busted my head open! Did you even think before you attacked?"

"Well... uh, sorry." Kalden replied, straightening out and relaxing again, placing one hand on his hip and the other behind his head, rubbing his neck while looking rather sheepish and apologetic. "I kinda just... thought we were under attack again. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Julienne huffed loudly. "Fine, whatever. I guess when my head stops throbbing I might forgive you. So what's the story with the unconscious one over there?"

"That... was a pretty..." Ryan panted, groaning as he sat up. "SHOCKING HIGH-FIVE!" he exclaimed enthusiastically, grinning and jumping back up, as if nothing had ever happened. He looked around, scratching the back of his neck. "Hey Kal, I see you got a bunch of new -" He stopped smiling when he noticed Davian leaning against the doorway. "- friends."

"Friends is a very innacurate word." Julienne commented, still glaring at the Sweating Kalden.

Davian's left eyebrow twitched at the look Ryan gave him. Why did the little peace that was in this room just drain away... He took his weight off of the wall and rubbed his still-sore wrist a bit. "I hate to stamp the saplings of friendship before they can really grow... or whatever, but I'm pretty sure me and the damsel here just woke up all the guards in the arena a minute ago."

"Why are you calling me a damsel?" Julienne complained. "I saved you three times."

"It just means a young, unmarried woman..." Davian explained.

Ryan quickly dusted his shirt off angrily and stomped towards the metalbender. "Okay listen, big-mouth. I don't want you muttering a single hell of a word from now on. The sound of your voice makes me seasick. The look of yer rotten, filth-covered face makes the rum in my hull go bad. Your very smell is stench to the dirtiest sailors in the country. So after this little ordeal is done with, me and you are gonna have a little talk about how you treat ladies. More specifically my lady. You dig, or do I have to punch it in?"

He was now in Davian's face, holding him by the collar, threateningly raising a fist to his face.

Davian kept his expression of apathy while the freshly-awoken Waterbender stomped up to him and began flinging insults and threats in his face. At first he just listened but the moment the punk grabbed his collar he backhanded the guy's arm away from him. "I don't know what your problem is, but I've had enough of pointless fighting for today. And also: Don't. Touch. Me."

"Whoa whoa whoa, you guys." Julienne immediately went into mediator mode once she noticed that things were about to get physical. "You guys really shouldn't -"

"Shut it, lady. Just because you know Angelique doesn't mean -" Ryan snapped back at Julienne. Oh, wait. She's her best friend; how could I be so - Ryan paused, and then sighed. "Sorry. Just a disagreement. We'll talk about it later."

Kalden glanced back and forth between the three and as the argument began to escalate rapidly. However, things seemed to cool off as Ryan backed down. Taking a deep breath, he rubbed the side of his neck and stepped closer, raising his hands in a sort of 'let's all calm down now' gesture. "... Right, now that that happened... we should probably find somewhere to hide now that every guard in the arena is out looking for us. And from what the lady and the guy here said, they're probably on their way here now. So, uh... who's up for getting out of this room and find a better place to hide out for the time being?"

"Yeah, I like that idea." Julienne agreed. "How about we all leave the training rooms, with Unconscious Guy in the back of the group and Davian in the front? We might make it out without them trying to kill each other."

"Sounds like a plan to me. As long as we reach Angelique." Ryan agreed.

"Apparently nobody was listening when I said I don't want to fight, but whatever. As long as it helps us move. Once Julienne and Angelique are reunited, I can look for the Avatar." Davian shrugged, refusing to get worked up.

Kalden blinked in surprise at the supposed metalbender's comment, clearing his throat quietly. "Yeah, uh, about that... actually, I'll tell you when we're somewhere safe." He stepped over to the door leading out into the hallway, which he opened and peeked out of. "Right, so... I figure we should try to get to one of the smaller storage rooms. I doubt there's anyone in there, and if there are, we can probably take them out. It's down this hall to the right, then a left, and it's the third door on our -."

"Kalden, why don't you just lead us there instead, since you know where it is?" Julienne interrupted. "Seems a lot easier than having us memorize it for no reason."

"... Good point. It's just that your plan with those two sounded good and I didn't want to go against it, heh." He gave a little grin and shrugged his shoulders before putting on his serious face again.

"... Right, yeah. Davian, how about you go on ahead then? I'll stay at the back with this one." She suggested.

"Sure, just try not to castrate him if he pisses you off." Davian said as he moved closer to the doorway. He was as worried that she would get in a fight with Ryan as they were about him, what with how much he and she had argued earlier.

As Davian and Kalden both departed from the doorway, Julienne turned around to face Ryan to give him an angry glare. "Listen. If you ever tell me to shut up again, I will strangle you. And if you think you of all people have a chance with Angelique, you are sadly mistaken. I can guarantee that there is no possibility of you getting with her, ever. If anything, you should just keep quiet and stop causing so much trouble. Let's go."

She turned back around, satisfied with her sass, and walked off down the hall.

Ryan sighed and shook his head, looking at Julienne as she stormed away. Angelique seriously needs to improve her social skills. If the only person she can get along with is THIS girl, of all others, I'm surprised. He looked around for his glove, in the hopes that it hadn't been short-circuited. He found it a few feet away, slightly scorched but apprently still in a wearable state. He quickly picked it up and ran off towards the others.

While he followed Kalden through the hall towards wherever he was taking them, Davian couldn't help being curious about the whole scene in the locker room. "It figures that after all I've been through today, somebody would still be after me for one reason or another." He muttered only loud enough for Kalden to hear.

"Heh, sounds like you've had a pretty rough day. Though honestly, I bet pretty much everybody here's had that." He replied quietly to the guy behind him, carefully peering around the corner before scurrying around it, making sure there weren't any guards or thugs nearby, before looking over his shoulder, ensuring everybody was still with him.

"Alright, it's not far now, just a l-" The sound of trampling footsteps cut him off, coming from somewhere in front of them down the curved hall. His eyes widened as he looked around the hallway, spotting a door just to their left. He ran over to it and pulled it open, revealing a not-too-big janitor's closet, full of buckets, old rags and the usual cleaning supplies. "In here, quick!" He whispered to the others.

As Julienne came around the corner with Ryan close behind, she noticed that Kalden and Davian were jumping into a closet. "Guys, what are you... oh ****, there are people coming." Much like she said, two guards came running around the corner, stopping when they noticed the two of them. "Oh great... Pirate Dude, gimme your glove thing."

Ryan spun around. He saw the two guards coming, and Kalden and the Metalbender jumping into the storage closet. He quickly tossed the electric glove to Julienne before charging shoulderfirst into one of the guards, knocking him onto the ground before he could take out his electric weapon.

The second guard took the opportunity to dart past Ryan as he crashed into his partner towards Julienne, who was completely unprepared for the attack. The guy crashed into her, pushing her into the ground and attempting to grab her with the glove. She swung her hands and kicked her legs wildly, trying to hit the guy anywhere she could. The guard eventually grabbed her by the ankle and delivered a shock to her, making her scream in pain. She fell limp as he let go of her before he turned back to face Ryan.

Only a few seconds after he closed the closet door behind him Davian heard shouting and scuffling. "They didn't make it! We've gotta help 'em!" He whispered before reaching for the handle of the door.

Kalden managed to grab Davian's wrist before he grabbed the handle, whispering out a, "Hold on! You can't just go barging out there!" He gave the guy cramped into the tiny closet a little look before letting go of his wrist, taking a hold of the handle himself, pushing the door open just a crack, peering out at the scene playing out. He winced and murmured back to Davian; "... There's not alot we can do right now. We're not going to abandon them. Let's follow, and see where they're taking them."

Davian paused when Kalden stopped him and explained his preferred course of action. He had seen first hand that some of these jerks knew what they were doing in a fight, and if they were outnumbered it wouldn't be a good idea for him to jump in. Besides, maybe if we follow them well enough they'll get taken somewhere we could find more allies... He sighed. "I suppose it's the best option we've got right now."

Ryan swiftly stood back up and glanced back as he heard Julienne getting shocked behind him. Well, here goes nothing. Noticing a small stick attached to the belt of the guard he had just taken down, Ryan ducked as the second one threw a punch at him. He quickly snatched the stick and jumped back, holding the weapon like a sword. He noticed a small button at the bottom, and pressed it. The stick started glowing dark blue, as well as slightly buzzing and emitting small shocks of electricity. He took a step forward, and saw that the guard was backing away from him. Taking this as an opportunity, he ran forward and slammed the stick on the side of the guard's head, swinging it like a baseball bat. The impact was so strong it had slightly bent the stick, making it useless.

"Shouldn't have broken that!" The other guard, who was supposed to be knocked out, came from behind Ryan and put him in a chokehold, trying to knock him out. Ryan struggled roughly, trying to pry the guy's arms off, but sadly he was a lot weaker and couldn't get him off. Eventually, Ryan felt himself losing conscious, and his struggles died down before he finally passed out and the guard dropped him onto the ground in front of Julienne.

Davian had nudged Kalden out of his way a bit and was leaning against the door, listening carefully to the outer procedings. There was clearly a struggle but it wasn't all that long before it was over. Afterwards, he waited until the sounds of dragging were no longer audible to push the door open and inch out. "Alright, they're going further down that other hall. We have keep up without being noticed."

"Down that way? Hmh..." Kalden replied, looking both curious and rather worried for the two that were just dragged off, his brows furrowed as he finally gave a little nod. "Alright then, let's go save them." Kalden wasn't quite happy with going to where the thugs were keeping their hostages, considering he simply might get captured again, which wasn't something he was looking forward to. This time though, he was ready for them, and if they played it cleverly... they might just pull through without more than a few scratches.

He placed his palm against the door and slowly pushed it open, inching his way out of it and waiting for Davian to do the same, listening intently for the guards walking off, down the hallway. He glanced back at Davian, looking over the guy. If anything, he was happy to have someone watching his back, so he gave the boy a smile, reaching back to give Davian's shoulder a pat. "Don't worry; we'll save them, or my name isn't Kalden. I promise you that."

Davian wasted no time exiting the stuffy storage closet after Kalden. They had to help them. Whatever the watertard's problem was, Julienne deserved his assistance. He wanted to shove Kalden out of the way and run after them, but it was likely the Airbender was lighter on his feet than Davian and probably knew the stadium better.

Before they could go any further, however, a figure dropped down in front of them, landing only a few meters away. It was clear that this man was different from the Equalists who had attacked them not too long ago; he wore a concealing black robe and a face-concealing hood. The man lifted his hood just enough for the pair to see the bald, tattoed head underneath. The motion caused his long sleeves to shuffle down enough to reveal that his hands and arms bore the same markings. He opened his mouth and spoke, but the words that came out were sparce and barely audible. "Xiu is here, Angelique was caught in her place."

Davian formed his quarterstaff the moment the mysterious person made their entrance, taking a defensive stance. He kept on guard but visibly relaxed when the man showed them the distinctive arrow markings of an Airbender. Xiu... Xiu... oh! "That's the Avatar's name, right? We could definitely use the help... is there any chance either of them were brought to the same place our friends are going to?"

As soon as the figure had dropped down in front of them, Kalden had gone into a defensive position as well. However, he quickly put down his guard again as the man revealed his identity, Kalden's eyes widening. "... Uncle Thok! So Xiu -is- here!" He folded an arm across his chest, raising his other hand to rub his chin, putting on a thoughtful expression. "So this Angelique was caught instead of Xiu? They probably brought her to the boss' place... but from what I'm guessing, is that Ryan, Xiu and... uhm, angry-girl are most likely being brought to where the rest of the hostages are, which is down this hallway. The only place big enough for that is the big gym."

Taking a moment to let this sink in with the other two, he turned to Thokmay, now more than confident enough that they'd be able to save the others, as he put on a bright grin, glancing over to Davian afterwards. "Shall we go save the Avatar and our friends?"

With a plan finally decided upon Davian couldn't help feeling the thrill of oncoming battle fill his mind. He clenched his fists and his staff melted and the liquid metal moved down his arms and covered his hands, forming into a pair of large guantlets with heavy-bolted knuckles. He smirked back at Kalden and thumped the gauntlets together. "Let's."

Kanko worked alone. He weaved between members of the crowd, picking out targets whilst drawing no attention to himself. His heavy, dark red coat hid his weapon well - his clothing was nothing like the black, fitted uniform of his subordinates. He was his own man in this mission.

Across the room, a soldier, clad in black, raised his hand - there was a problem. Trying not to draw attention to himself, Kanko made his way across to a narrow doorway - guarded by two of his men. Better keep up appearances he thought as he strode forward, the guards were clearly able, fit and strong, but there was a reason that Kanko was their superior.

"Excuse me, I think there's been a mistake, you see..." he paused, smiled, his sentence ended there. His arm, bulked up with muscle, shot forward, grasping the first guard by the neck. They both froze, confused as to what was happening. Kanko was disappointed in their response, "You can't act for sh*t," he whispered, inaudible to the gathering crowd. With one, forceful push he flung one guard against the other, pushing through the door and out of the eyes of the growing audience.

"We really need new lackeys," he said to himself, foraging through the pockets in his coat until he found the transmission device.

"This is Kan, what's the problem?" He spoke clearly and calmly, a very sudden change in demeanor.

"T-there's been an escape, they lynched us, I'm sorry sir bu-" The apologetic minion tried to justify his failure, but he was quickly cut off.

"Return to the dock, I'll sort this."

- - - - -

He had been following them for some time, lurking in the adjacent corridor, in the shadow of a doorway, awaiting the perfect moment. An older man, hooded, had joined the teenagers - he was a prime target, his revealed, bald head and distinctive tattoos gave him away.

We've got an airbender to play with, Kanko thought, amused, it had been a while since he'd faced a nomad. Time for a grand entrance.

His first footstep, emphasised by a thick, hardy boot, echoed down the corridor. That was all the monk needed to sense his presence, straight away the airbender reeled round to face him. Kanko chuckled, getting a clearer view of his opponent proved him right - he wasn't particularly fussed about the younger boys, he wanted to enjoy a good fight before recapturing them.

Flashing open his cloak, Kanko revealed a fitted, blue jacket. It was designed specifically for combat, fighting benders in particular. Fireproof, nonabsorbent, hardy and protective - it eliminated a lot of immediate threats on it's own. His hand rested on his favourite piece though, a gold-hilted katana. Without even drawing his sword, the commander smirked and strode forward.

His opponent hesitated, looking between the boys and the fierce swordsman. "Go! Save Xiu, save your friends," he barked, removing his own hooded cloak and preparing for battle. Davian and Kalden retreated to the large gymnasium.

"Come." Thokmay spoke, his face composed and emotionless. His white lotus uniform was a clear identification of his ability - this man was an able bender.

"If you wish," Kanko said, an air of humour hinted in his voice. Bursting forward, the elite powered towards the air nomad. His sword was still sheathed, but an eager hand twitched at the hilt as he neared his opponent.

A disc of sharp, whirling air skimmed by, Kan weaved around it - all too familiar with airbending techniques. He had studied for many years, studied their tactics, their range and their weaknesses.

Thokmay did not waste another attack, charging forward himself with devastating, wind-propelled, force. Kanko grinned, drawing his sword just as the two were about to collide - causing the white lotus airbender to jump away.

Five metres was as much space as they could separate in the confined corridor. "Superb dodge," Kanko congratulated, holding out his sword, the tip pointing at Thokmay's chest. He smirked, this battle was over.

Squeezing the hilt, a sudden bolt of electricity erupted from Kanko's blade - firing directly at his opponent's chest. There was no time to dodge, no time to limit the damage.

"As much as I'd rather kill you by my own hands, the boss has a thing for airbenders." Retrieving the transmitter from his cloak, the commander called for backup. Thokmay was out of action, slumped against the wall, unconscious and ready to be taken in.

- - - - -

"I can't believe we caught the Avatar," the guard said to his colleague in disbelief, pushing Angelique to the floor, "We're going to be promoted, we'll get so much holiday for this - think of the bonus packet!"

Another pair of guards were close behind them, carrying a limp Xiu, leaving her sprawled on the floor with the other captives. "Shouldn't we get a blocker for that one?" A masked man questioned, pointing to the disheveled 'Avatar'.

"She came calmly! Jeez, don't sweat it. We've got this."

"Commander? Commander wait!" A young woman was heard shouting outside, eager to inform her boss of the recent events - he was already up to date and headed straight for the main prize.

Kanko thrust the door open, almost throwing it entirely off its hinges, entering the gymnasium with a bang. The captives looked up in fear, the majority of them young, weak, helpless. "Which one is it?" He ordered, the once gleeful guard was now timid and scared himself - pointing at the ruffled Angelique.

Storming over he grabbed the young girls face, pulling her up and twisting her from side to side to get a good look. Unsatisfied, he threw her back to the floor.

"Oh you idiots," He growled, "Why would she be the Avatar?! She's nothing special." Picking the girl up, by the scruff of her tank top. "Apologies, but your time is up." His free fist clenched.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:

All 'captured' characters have had their additional equipment and weapons confiscated - they can be recovered from a pile of bags at the side of the room.

There are civilians, in this case mostly children, in the room so be careful.

All characters are now in the big gymnasium. It is up to Bast and Seph on how theirs got there after being told to leave. (I would recommend them hiding there, so they can observe the above). Ryan was amongst the children, somehow managing to be quiet for a bit.

Kanko can be attacked, propositioned, etc. by anyone - just make sure to consider other roleplayers. Order of posts is essential here.

Kanko may not be defeated, his fate will be decided during the next update (next weekend).

There is a total of six guard accompanying Kanko, you may kill them or have them flee.

Angelique EverettOne would think that the "Avatar" would be treated with more respect, but Angelique soon realized that was a complete lie. She was glad she had sacrificed herself in place of Xiu; that girl wouldn't have survived this long.

The first thing that happened immediately was that Angelique had the **** beaten out of her. Six guards sprang on her at once, and even experienced fighters couldn't get out of that. As she was dragged away from the collapsing Xiu, Angelique noticed several bruises on her arms and legs forming. They'd probably go away soon, but boy did they hurt. Even worse, the idiots totally screwed up her hair and now it was just getting in her way.

As soon as she was inside, she was handcuffed with bending-proof locks and her bag was confiscated, which included her cards. Her pockets were cleaned and her main weapons were taken away. Afterwards, she was forcefully shoved into the gynamsium, which was filled with very young hostages, where she tripped down the stands and busted her shin on the stairway.

So at this point, she wasn't in a pleasant mood. "Jeez, you'd think people would treat the Avatar better than this. If my hands were locked I would be snapping all of your necks right now."

"Oh chill out, not like you'd get very far with this many guards around." A henchman laughed as he sat on one of the seats. "You might be a great fighter, but let's face it, you can't take all of us at once."

Another guard nearby held Angelique's bag; he enjoyed going through it and looking at everything she carried. "You got a lot of stuff in here, girl. What do you do with it?"

"Usually it's just to keep stuff in. That's what bags are for, idiot." Angelique snapped, flipping her hair out of her face. "Stop going through it already. The only interesting thing in there are the packs of cards I have. Maybe you guys should play Solitaire with them and cut your hands up?"

"Nice try, but -" the guard's quip was immediately interrupted when the door to the gymnasium flung open roughly, causing every guard to jump to attention. From behind the door came a huge, bulking boss-like guy that didn't look too entirely happy. He was storming right over in her direction, causing the guards to quiver slightly.

"Which one is it?" He barked, causing the guards to jump. The one who was holding her bag pointed to her, causing the boss guy to come over and grab her by her face, which made Angelique shout out various obscenities and kick him in the stomach to no avail. He dropped her back down on the ground, making her growl with rage. "You idiots. Why would she be the Avatar?! She's nothing special."

"Excuse me, *******, I am very special, even if I'm not the Avatar. And I don't know who you think you are, but you better - hey!"

Boss-guy didn't have time for Angelique's unrelenting anger. He grabbed her by the front of her tank top and held a fist up to her. "Apologies, but your time is up."

"Uh, I don't think so, buster! Get the hell off of me!" She snapped, placing her feet against his chest and pushing herself out of his grip. She skidded a few inches down the edge of the walkway, assuming her usual combat stance minus the position of her arms. Her shin was wailing for her to stop moving. "I can still firebend, y'know. I don't need my hands. If you think you're scary, you're wrong."

"I could handle three firebenders, more skilled then you, even with the use of their hands," the commander was disgusted that such a small girl deemed herself equal, although perhaps her lack of action said more than her overworked mouth. "If you firebend against me, I will have to break all of your limbs until you've got nothing left to work with." he threatened, with a smile.

"Wow, how many times have I been threatened like that?" She mocked. "Like I said, you don't scare me. No one scares me."

"I wonder how tough you'd be without that fire in your belly, little girl." Kanko was tired of the girl. He played with the thought of having an angry, fireless pet to take home. His fingers twitched; if the blockers didn't arrive soon, he'd have to get his hands dirty.

"Actually, I'm pretty tough, thank you." She scoffed. "I think you're underestimating me. With or without fire, I can fight. Someone like you doesn't even pose a challenge. You're nothing but another steamhead. Spare yourself the agony of embarrassment, because this entire endeavor is pointless and you won't succeed."

He smiled. How amusing. "I take it you know a certain hooded airbender I met earlier? Apparently, he likes the company of kids your age. Would you like to share a cell with him?" His exterior was calm, aware of the audience of captives around them. He would not show a flicker of doubt in his own superiority. The girl posed no threat in her state and the escapees were nowhere to be found.

"I have no idea who you're talking about, unless you mean Kalden. And I highly doubt you would actually capture him." She laughed. "Seriously dude, you could just end this whole thing, the entire operation, right now, and you won't end up looking like an idiot. Although, in your case, that might be harder than it seems. You're not gonna find who you're looking for here, so just give up."

Two guards rushed forward, taking up positions behind Angelique. "It's always the firebenders who kick up a fuss." Kanko sighed. "I'll leave her with you. I've got a boy to find... Kalden, what is?"

Angelique attempted to lunge forward, but the guards held her back by her arms. "Don't even think about trying to find Kalden! If you hurt him, I'll kick your face in! He's too smart for someone like you to find him anyway." The boss-guy simply ignored her threat, making her growl as he walked away.

Just you wait... she thought bitterly as the guards put her back in her captive spot.

__________________

at some point I must have liked that you look like a taco addict who's had one too many back alley liposuctions

The PokéCommunity

Meta

Pokémon characters and images belong to The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo. This website is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, or The Pokémon Company International. We just love Pokémon.